By the pricking of my thumbs….

Joe Speaking

That’s right, we’re coming home today. China has been an interesting host and we’ll thank her kindly for the hospitality (I’ll share stories in another forum) but we are excited to return home. Our flight departs today at 4PM and arrives today at 4PM in Chicago.

Yesterday my presentation, “Designing for Augmented Cognition: Problem Solving for Complex Environments” was well received by everyone. A good portion of the presentation dealt with the pilot-cockpit research we’ve been working on for the last 2 years. After my presentation, I had an interesting discussion with a gentleman about the value of the old-school steam gauges that are still in use in the majority of today’s general aviation fleet. I think I’m going to need to better document my justifications for revisiting the cockpit interface metaphor. I’ve talked about the acceptance resistances exhibited by expert users of bad interfaces in the past and if this discussion is representative of the aviation community as a whole, I’ve got my work cut out for me. More on that later.

For the most part I am finding myself re-invigorated by our cockpit research. I’m planning on doing a little more work and then releasing our UI to the public as an open source initiative. I’m excited to participate in a larger open discussion. For now, though, I will spend a little more time dreaming. Now where’s that bottle of Ambien? See you all soon.

Spill