Portable eye movement and automated analysis systems have been developed for use in pilot training and other applications where it is necessary to monitor and analyze changes in an observer's point of regard. The eye movement system hardware consists of a lightweight, headmounted, two-dimensional eye tracker and miniature scene camera, an electronic control and processing unit, and a video recorder and monitor. This system, manufactured by El Mar, Inc., is easily transportable and weighs less than 10 Kg. During training, a small crosshair indicating the point of regard is electronically combined with video from the scene camera and both are recorded on video tape for later analysis by an integrated image processing system. The automated analysis system determines which objects were viewed, how long each was viewed, and the order in which they were viewed.

The present systems were used to measure and analyze the visual scan paths of pilots in three aircraft simulators. This was done to determine whether data of this kind can be used to increase training effectiveness by identifying efficient scanning strategies and by quantifying differences in the behavior of expert and novice pilots. Scan paths were evaluated for: 1) T-37 Instructor Pilots (IPs) and T-37 student IPs (rated pilots training to be IPs) while they performed precision instrument approaches in a motion base simulator, 2) F-16 IPs while performing air-to-air scenarios in the Air Combat Engagement Simulator (ACES) and 3) F-16 LANTIRN IPs while performing low-level scenarios in the LANTIRN simulator. The results of these evaluations are described.