Method for Inference of Operators' Thoughts from Eye Movement Data in Nuclear Power Plants

Sometimes, we need or try to figure out somebody's thoughts from his or her behaviors such as eye movement, facial expression, gestures, and motions. In safety-critical and complex systems such as nuclear power plants, the inference of operators' thoughts (understanding or diagnosis of a current situation) might provide a lot of opportunities for useful applications, such as development of an improved operator training program, a new type of operator support system, and human performance measures for human factor validation. In this experimental study, a novel method for inference of an operator's thoughts from his or her eye movement data is proposed and evaluated with a nuclear power plant simulator. In the experiments, about 80% of operators' thoughts can be inferred correctly using the proposed method.