Watch Where you Walk, Soldier!
Reported March 2008
NATICK, Mass. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- We start out crawling, then graduate to walking. After that we don't think much about it. But a new device used in a study by the military could save soldiers' lives and help civilians keep their feet on the ground in new surroundings.
This looks like a tactical training mission for the military but it's actually an exercise in walking. "Everyone worries about driving while distracted -- well you need to worry about walking while distracted, as well," says Jason Augustyn, a human factors psychologist for the U.S. Army Natick Research Development and Engineering Center (NRDEC) in Natick, Mass.
Augustyn feels that is especially true for soldiers walking on unfamiliar terrain, so he combined eye tracking with dual-tasking.
The device analyzes how a soldier allocates his attention while walking over terrain of varying complexity. It's equipped with an infrared camera that records corneal reflections. A second camera records the scene.
Soldiers are then asked to walk in a virtual reality room and perform a second task, like searching for a sniper. The results showed -- accuracy on the second task declined as terrain complexity increased.
"It shows you really have to pay attention to your surroundings -- where you are walking, what you are looking at, and if you don't you could get hurt … you could lose your life," says Tony Rogers, a research technician for NRDEC.
The findings appear to hold true for civilians, especially when walking with modern day distractions like cell phones and music players.
"You have to pay attention to what you are doing, especially if you are in a situation where the terrain is more complicated -- icy sidewalks, dirt gravel, leaves, things of that nature," says Augustyn.
The goal of the military is to show that added support may be needed in combat, depending upon the terrain soldier patrol.
The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.
Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:
Jerry Whitaker, Chief, Public Affairs Office
U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center-Natick
(508) 233-5340
Jerry.Whitaker@natick.army.mil
Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
Santa Monica, CA 90406
(310) 394-1811
http://www.hfes.org
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