Facial Movements as Indicators of Fatigue in Air Traffic Control Tasks

Abstract

Air Traffic Control is a work that needs sustained vigilance for a certain period. This condition may result in mental fatigue that can lead to errors or incidents. Facial points could be potential indicators of fatigue that can be used in a real work environment. The objective of this research is to identify the parameters of facial points in order to detect fatigue considering correlation and accuracy value. An Experiment laboratory has been used to capture and recognize five facial points around the eyes of 12 participants when doing moderate and high traffic of simulated Air Traffic Control tasks. Six parameters that are related to movement and fixation of the facial points have been analyzed at five facial points. As a result, among 14 parameters-facial points that have a significant correlation to fatigue, only 4 of them at 2 facial points have good accuracy (>70%) in detecting the increase of fatigue level. Decreasing of movement velocity and increasing of fixation duration of points related to head and eyebrow have been found out when fatigue level increased. It can be concluded that some movement and fixation parameters of facial points are promising to be used in fatigue detection in Air Traffic Control tasks.