Control Room Collaboration and Control Does it Work

Control Room Collaboration and Control: Does it Work? University College London Human Centered Systems Hina Keval 9 th HCT Workshop, 11 -12 th. Sept 2006

Overview of Talk • Describe: Research Problems • Discuss: Pitfalls with Previous Control Room Research • Research Findings from field work at public CCTV control rooms • Conclusions to Field Work • Future Work • Q&A 2

Research Arena: CCTV & HCI/Ergonomics • CCTV first used in London Underground 1961 • Estimated excess of 14 million cameras in UK today • Several changes in security have occurred: – Crime rates gone up – Terrorist attacks • Perceived fear of crime risen • Advances in CCTV technology • Usage scenarios changing • Increased funding 3

Research Questions: CCTV Control Rooms • More applications are being integrated into existing systems • No assessment on operator task performance within CCTV control rooms (1) How are operators coping with information demands in busy control rooms? (2) Are control rooms physically designed to support cognitive tasks? 4

Previous Research: CCTV Control Rooms • Several ethnographic studies have studied workplace interactions – Air traffic control centres (Bentley et al, 1992) – Ambulance control rooms (Mc. Carthy et al, 1991) – Transport control rooms (Luff and Heath, 2001) • Findings descriptive not prescriptive • Very little analysis on HCI issues & design changes for tasks & technology set-up. • Home Office evaluations (Gill et al, 2005 a and Gill et al, 2005 b) - Use of technology in control rooms not examined - CCTV technology changing at the time of the study 5

Previous Research: Cont… • Luff and Heath’s London Underground Control Room Study • Some design issues given • Ergonomics practice & HCI barriers to task performance ignored • Purchasing expensive equipment • Radically re-designing control room environment processes 6

Methodology • Distributed Cognition (Hollan et al, 1999) “…seeks to understand the organisation of cognitive systems. ” - Useful to understand nature of task, processes involved when operators communicated and used technology to perform surveillance tasks. • Ran series of ‘quick and dirty’ ethnographic observations at 6 control rooms: - Total of 25 operators / 6 managers and 6 supervisors interviewed – semi-structured questions - Conducted naturalistic overt observations ~ 5 -6 hours 7

CCTV Control Room Research GOALS… • Understand the organisational & general practices of CCTV control rooms within large cities. • Identify types of technology used by operators & how they were used. • Identify limitations concerning tasks and system design. 8

Operator Tasks Identified (1) REACTIVE TASKS - Responding (2) PROACTIVE TASKS - Monitoring (3) ADMINISTRATION TASKS – Tape labelling and preparing copies for police – Creating incident reports 9

Problems Identified (1) CAN’T SEE “You don’t get us watching TV anymore” (2) TOO MUCH INFO “They just keep adding cameras. ” “I can hardly concentrate in hear, it’s so noisy” 10

(4) Ineffective Search & Select Task • • • Majority of operators don’t live in surv. area All control rooms visited – no maps linked to cams Staff drew their own maps for newcomers Need to memorise camera locations, numbers & screens Paper maps can go astray & need updating 1. Cameras Database 2. Map of Area i. e Camden with Cameras No. Search for Camera/Street Location 1 4 2 1 5 3 11 12 7 6 9 10 8 13 11

Camera Number 10 – Gower Street 12

(5) Bad Ergonomics 8 Different pieces of equipment!! • Operator complained that old equipment left lying about. • Work area cluttered • Controls to equipment were poorly located, preventing operator in using camera controls properly 13

Field Work Conclusions • Technology changing – need for assessment • Lack of system and tool integration in CCTV control rooms • Design should focus on operator tasks not just technology • Workspace layout and expansion should consider impact on operator comfort, performance and health & safety not just what impact upgrades have on crime statistics 14

Future Work • 8 further ethnographic field studies carried out in control rooms in and out of London • Police control rooms also studied • Recommendations validated via reports to : – Metropolitan Police at Heathrow Command & Control Airport – 1 London Borough Control Room (South London) Findings will be used to form usability framework for CCTV users – where ergonomics and HCI factors are central to framework 15

References Bentley, R. , Hughes, Randall, D. , Rodden, T. , Sawyer, P. , Shapiro, D and Sommerville, I. Ethnographically informed systems design for air traffic control, in: Proceedings of CSCW'92 Toronto, Ontario, ACM Press, 1992, pp. 123 -129. Gill, M. , Allen, A. , Jessiman, J. , Swain, D. , Hemming, M. , Kara, D and Little, R. Control room operation: findings from control room observations, Home Office report, No. 17, 2005 a. Gill, M. , Allen, A. , Jessiman, J. , Swain, D. , Hemming, M. , Kara, D and Little R. Methods in assessing the impact of CCTV, Home Office report, No 17, 2005 b Hollan, J. , Hutchins, E. , and Kirsh, D. (1999) “Distributed Cognition: A New Foundation for Human-Computer Interaction Research, ” ACM Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 174 -196. Luff, P and Heath, C. Surveying the scene: the monitoring practices of staff control rooms, in : Proceedings of People in Control: An international conference on human interfaces in control rooms, cockpits and command centres, Noyes, J. and Bransby, M. (eds. ), IEE Press, University of Bath, UK, 2001, pp. 1 -6. Mc. Carthy, J. , Wright P. C. , Healey, P. , Dearden, A and Harrison, M. D. Locating The Scene: The Particular and The General in Contexts for Ambulance Control, in: Proceedings of ACM 97’ Phoenix, Arizona, ACM Pres, 1997, pp. 101 -110. 16

Q & A… Thank you for your attention. Any questions ? 17