Evolutionary Based Adaptive User Interfaces in Complex Supervisory Tasks

Literature Review On Conceptual Framework For Adaptation

In the introduction, we have mentioned that adaptation of the interface is deemed to be the remedy for human errors in complex environments. The interface adaptation, on the other hand, is not a straightforward task. Difficulty lies in first assessing the user’s state of mind (goal-subgoal structure), state of psychology (situation awareness), and level of vigilance. All of these are non-deterministic and hard to model. Secondly, defining an appropriate adaptation behavior for the interface; and thirdly timeliness of the adaptation (Horvitz, 1999) are the other difficulties. Since the work undertaken in this area of research is not well defined, and hard to attack without an appropriate tool, we need to define a framework before we can start the discussion. There are three steps to be considered in adaptation of the interface. Many papers have been written on adaptation and adaptation methods, however Rothrock et al. (2002) have defined a simple and comprehensive framework for adaptation. In this study we will follow Rothrock’s methodology: identification of variables that call for adaptation, determination of necessary modifications to the interface and selection of decision inference mechanism.