One of the objectives of the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute’s (CAMI) Cabin Safety Research Team (CSRT) is to research topics that can potentially improve the flying public’s level of safety. In exploring topics of interest, emphasis is given to safety information systems and how they perform their primary function of getting safety information to passengers, in a way that the passengers can absorb, retain, and be able to use in the future. Traditionally such methods are in the form of passenger information cards, safety briefings (both live and recorded), and graphics and placards.

One day in 2012, while conducting a literature review, David Weed, a Human Factors Research Specialist (AAM-630) came across some content that sparked his interest while looking at wayfinding technologies for future use on aircraft. Researchers at the University of Udine in Italy were examining possibilities of taking serious games and using them for aircraft passenger safety information. The Udine team, led by Professor Luca Chittaro of the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) Laboratory, was exploring ways to improve passenger confidence in aircraft safety information and how those passengers thought they could successfully evacuate an aircraft before and after playing a serious game.

The possibilities of this research excited Weed, so he promptly shared the information with his then team coordinator, Dr. Mac Mclean who scheduled a meeting with Mr. Chittaro. Together, they worked on a grant to develop some serious games for airplane passenger safety, setting up ways to determine how effective passenger information systems are, and how they can be improved upon. Soon thereafter, a series of different gaming apps were developed. "All the applications send data back to the developers, including data about how many people have played, how many times they have played, and how many attempts the players made before achieving the game’s objectives and levels." Weed explains, “The games also include a flight history and experience questionnaire when they are first opened, helping the development team to compare background information.”

The first two apps that were released to the public were “Learn to Brace” in 2014, and “Life Vest” in 2015. “These games focused on very specific items of passenger safety information, including passenger brace positions and aviation life preservers, allowing players to explore them in very great detail, involving the ability to "practice" using the brace position and life preservers, as well as being introduced to the downsides of incorrect use in a virtual setting,” said Rick DeWeese, Supervisor of the Aeromedical Engineering Sciences Section. These games were developed, allowing comparisons of information retention and user-predicted confidence in their future ability to use both the brace position and aviation life preservers in the future. These apps demonstrated such high popularity that the developers received feedback from non-test participant users which was incorporated into some of the future applications.

Also in 2015, the team at HCI Udine released the app “Plane Troubles.” This was a first attempt at an evacuation management game, teaching the user what to avoid, while reinforcing items to leave behind from instructions given by characters on the screen. “This method turned out to be more fun,” says Weed, “It has a less realistic art style than the other apps that were released, and the feedback that was received helped us in developing future applications.”

Up to this juncture, the applications were excellent from a research standpoint, but they were not as popular from a gaming point-of-view. That soon changed with the release of the “Prepare for Impact” app in March of 2016. By October of that year, there were over 700,000 unique downloads, “which was pretty amazing for an ‘educational’ game,” says Weed. The app was released for use on phones, as well as computers, and has the ability to be played using a virtual reality headset. The app puts players into a first-person perspective with players boarding an airplane, finding their seat, and then experiencing one of several kinds of accidents (including runway overrun, ditching, or fire). Players then have to find their closest exit and evacuate, while taking care to grab the proper equipment, a life preserver in the case of a ditching, and avoid environmental hazards, such as smoke inhalation. This app was a huge success both from a research point-of-view, looking at information retention and confidence, but also from a user engagement point-of- view. Weed reflects, “My two favorite stories about this game, from talking with Professor Chittaro, was hearing about all the user feedback and requests that the team received, and how much (and how fast) people were playing the game. People wanted more levels so they could play more, and with more features, such as leaderboards and in-game chat rooms, so they could better compete with one another. People were playing the game so much, improving so much, that they were able to "beat" most of the levels faster than the developers could create them, and best of all…..Professor Chittaro had the data to prove it." These suggestions, as well as others, were incorporated into the last app released.

The final app released under the grant was in April 2017 and is called “Air Safety World.” It is designed as a personal, virtual flight attendant that is there to walk the user through all of the transport airplane passenger safety topics, allowing the user to practice along with them. Some of the topics include: where to find the life preserver, how to use passenger oxygen masks, and how to open airplane emergency exits for exit row seats. Additionally, the app includes most of the requested features from “Prepare for Impact,” such as leaderboards and a game room. The game room includes an improved version of the “Plane Troubles” app, as well as one called “Door Ninja,” based off of the popular app “Fruit Ninja,” where the player is going through a gauntlet of actual Boeing and Airbus aircraft doors, and opening them as fast as they can with a single swipe. This game room feeds into another often-requested feature of unlockable items and a progression system. The game features a "fleet" of aircraft that the participant can unlock, along with a livery, allowing those who want to play multiple times some goals to strive toward.

“User engagement is high, especially with the last two apps produced, making this grant a huge success. We have received similar feedback at several aviation safety conferences,” says Weed. “It’s always a highlight when someone comes up to meet me at an event and shows me one of the games asking, "Have you seen this? This is great stuff!" or "How can we get these in front of more passengers?"

Weed expounds that the next step of this project is to verify the apps at their facility, with an American audience, measuring the efficacy of these applications for passenger education and information retention. In the future, Weed insists that they would love for more applications such as these to be developed and released to the flying public. One of the current questions that CAMI’s research team is facing is the method for fostering future releases, either through development by a member of their team, with assistance from other teams at CAMI, or within the FAA, or through future grants. A future grant could be with HCI Udine or another developer that has formed since this project was initiated; at least one of which was started by graduate and post-doctoral students from Professor Chittaro's lab.

You are encouraged to try one or all of the aviation safety related apps. All of the applications can be downloaded for free from Google Play and the Apple store. Some of them are also available on Facebook. Further information can be found at: Aviation Safety Projects at our Lab