Control Room Collaboration and Control:
Does it Work?
University College London Human Centered Systems
Hina Keval
9th HCT Workshop, 11-12thSept 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 (McCarthy 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, 2005a and Gill et al, 2005b)
- Use of technology in control rooms not examined
- CCTV technology changing at the time of the study
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Previous Research: Cont…
• Luff and Heath’s London
•
Some design issues given
Underground Control
•
Ergonomics practice & HCI
barriers to task performance
ignored
•
Purchasing expensive
equipment
•
Radically re-designing
control room environment
processes
Room Study
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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
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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.
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Operator Tasks Identified
(1) REACTIVE TASKS
- Responding
(2) PROACTIVE TASKS
- Monitoring
(3) ADMINISTRATION TASKS
– Tape labelling and preparing copies for police
– Creating incident reports
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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”
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(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
2. Map of Area i.e Camden
with Cameras No.
1. Cameras Database
Search for Camera/Street Location
1
4
2
1
11
3
5
12
7
6
9
10 8
13
11
Camera Number 10 – Gower Street
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(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
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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
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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
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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, 2005a.
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, 2005b
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.
McCarthy, 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 ACM97’ Phoenix, Arizona, ACM Pres, 1997, pp. 101-110.
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Q & A…
Thank you for your attention.
Any questions ?
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