VR Cognitive Load Dashboard for Flight Simulator

Estimating the cognitive load of aircraft pilots is essential to monitor them constantly to identify and overcome unfavorable situations. Presently, the cognitive load of pilots is estimated using manual filling up of forms, and there is a lack of a system that can estimate workload automatically. In this paper, we used eye-tracking technology for cognitive load estimation and developed a Virtual Reality dashboard that visualizes cognitive and ocular data. We undertook a flight simulation study to observe users’ workload during primary and secondary task execution while flying the aircraft. We also undertook an eye-tracking study to identify appropriate 3D graph properties for developing graphs of the cognitive dashboard. We found a significant interaction between users’ primary and secondary tasks. We also observed that primitives like size and color were easier to encode numerical and nominal information. Finally, we developed a dashboard leveraging the results of the 3D graph study for estimating the pilot’s cognitive load. The VR dashboard enabled visualization of the cognitive load parameters derived from the ocular data in real time. The aim of the 3D graph study was to identify the optimal information to be displayed to the participants/pilots. Apart from estimating cognitive load using ocular data, the dashboard can also visualize ocular data collected in a Virtual Reality environment.