6 ms·

Along these same lines, one of my favorite examples of this type of work (human factors related to attention/alerting) is "Bitchin' Betty" and company - the fem

Along these same lines, one of my favorite examples of this type of work (human factors related to attention/alerting) is "Bitchin' Betty" and company - the female voice that makes up the "oral alert system" from the F/A-18 superhornet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx7-yvXf6f8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx7-yvXf6f8 A lot of research went into everything from the gender to the tone of the voice so that pilots would know to immediately pay attention to the warning system above everything else. [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitching_Betty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitching_Betty

tome 10y ago
That's really interesting! And now and off-topic question: why would rolling right stop a plane from going in the sea?
- dfsegoat 10y ago
  Not a pilot or engineer - but I imagine if the plane were in a "banked left" position (prolonged left roll) where altitude was being lost because of "slip" - then rolling right would restore lift / level flight http://2bfly.com/assets/slipinbank21.png http://2bfly.com/assets/slipinbank21.png
  - jenamety 10y ago
    likely just trying to get wings level. Likely triggered due to the high bank angle plus low altitude. PDF Warning: Page 121 - Aerodynamic Forces in Flight Maneuvers https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/phak/media/pilot_handbook.pdf https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/a...
- cyberferret 10y ago
  Possibly the pilot was in a sustained left banking turn and didn't realise that he was losing altitude and/or airspeed. The "Roll Right!" command was possibly to force him to go 'wings level' and maintain altitude. Any time you bank the wings of a plane to make a turn, you have to also pull back on the stick to maintain the same amount of lift to keep you in level flight. The more you bank, the more 'back stick' you need to maintain the lift. It's a logarithmic corellation, i.e. in a 90 degree banked turn, it is impossible (you need infinite lift) to maintain altitude. Most aircraft get to the point where the bank is just to steep and you cannot generate enough lift to hold your altitude any longer. Pulling back on the stick some more will just end up bleeding off airspeed and putting you into a stall/spin. At that point your only recourse is to go back to 'wings level' and rebuild airspeed.
ethanbond 10y ago
That's fascinating, and oddly endearing. Thanks for sharing!
scoot 10y ago
"A lot of research went into everything from the gender to the tone of the voice" And according to that wikipedia link, most of it was wrong or conflicting!
- ErikVandeWater 10y ago
  I feel like cursing should also have been considered.
  - vvanders 10y ago
    Just have them call up Peter Capaldi, he'd be a great fit.
    - Jemmeh 10y ago
      I mean yeah. If the Doctor tells me to do something in a panicked voice I'm going to listen.
  - digi_owl 10y ago
    Could have sworn there is a celebrity voice add-on for some vehicle GPS that is just that.
Waterluvian 10y ago
All I can hear is my A-10 Simulator saying, "ALTITUDE, ALTITUDE!" in what seems like a calm female voice, but I can't un-hear it.
- dvtv75 10y ago
  15-20 years ago, I played one that kept saying "OVER-G!" I didn't hear that, though, I heard "Aubergine!"
dwyerm 10y ago
This has always reminded me of Ben Rubin's (EAR Studio) early work on notification tones. One of his projects was the ticket gates in the NYC subway system. Those high-pitched piezo speaker beepers are cheap and simple, but it is difficult to localize where the beep is coming from, and the single frequency can't communicate much. Mostly, you can't tell if your gate beeped, or the one next to you. His solution was, among other things, to turn it from a beep to a bell tone. That alone made it better. It seems like the audio design of things is often missed. I'm excited about products like Google's Home and Amazon's Echo because we're finally considering audio as a first-class user interface.
- avn2109 10y ago
  NYC subway turnstiles are my go-to example of bad audio UX because they make the same noise after a successful swipe as after a failure!!

tome 10y ago

That's really interesting! And now and off-topic question: why would rolling right stop a plane from going in the sea?

dfsegoat 10y ago
Not a pilot or engineer - but I imagine if the plane were in a "banked left" position (prolonged left roll) where altitude was being lost because of "slip" - then rolling right would restore lift / level flight http://2bfly.com/assets/slipinbank21.png http://2bfly.com/assets/slipinbank21.png
- jenamety 10y ago
  likely just trying to get wings level. Likely triggered due to the high bank angle plus low altitude. PDF Warning: Page 121 - Aerodynamic Forces in Flight Maneuvers https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/phak/media/pilot_handbook.pdf https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/a...
cyberferret 10y ago
Possibly the pilot was in a sustained left banking turn and didn't realise that he was losing altitude and/or airspeed. The "Roll Right!" command was possibly to force him to go 'wings level' and maintain altitude. Any time you bank the wings of a plane to make a turn, you have to also pull back on the stick to maintain the same amount of lift to keep you in level flight. The more you bank, the more 'back stick' you need to maintain the lift. It's a logarithmic corellation, i.e. in a 90 degree banked turn, it is impossible (you need infinite lift) to maintain altitude. Most aircraft get to the point where the bank is just to steep and you cannot generate enough lift to hold your altitude any longer. Pulling back on the stick some more will just end up bleeding off airspeed and putting you into a stall/spin. At that point your only recourse is to go back to 'wings level' and rebuild airspeed.

ethanbond 10y ago

That's fascinating, and oddly endearing. Thanks for sharing!

scoot 10y ago

"A lot of research went into everything from the gender to the tone of the voice" And according to that wikipedia link, most of it was wrong or conflicting!

ErikVandeWater 10y ago
I feel like cursing should also have been considered.
- vvanders 10y ago
  Just have them call up Peter Capaldi, he'd be a great fit.
  - Jemmeh 10y ago
    I mean yeah. If the Doctor tells me to do something in a panicked voice I'm going to listen.
- digi_owl 10y ago
  Could have sworn there is a celebrity voice add-on for some vehicle GPS that is just that.

Waterluvian 10y ago

All I can hear is my A-10 Simulator saying, "ALTITUDE, ALTITUDE!" in what seems like a calm female voice, but I can't un-hear it.

dvtv75 10y ago
15-20 years ago, I played one that kept saying "OVER-G!" I didn't hear that, though, I heard "Aubergine!"

dwyerm 10y ago

This has always reminded me of Ben Rubin's (EAR Studio) early work on notification tones. One of his projects was the ticket gates in the NYC subway system. Those high-pitched piezo speaker beepers are cheap and simple, but it is difficult to localize where the beep is coming from, and the single frequency can't communicate much. Mostly, you can't tell if your gate beeped, or the one next to you. His solution was, among other things, to turn it from a beep to a bell tone. That alone made it better. It seems like the audio design of things is often missed. I'm excited about products like Google's Home and Amazon's Echo because we're finally considering audio as a first-class user interface.

avn2109 10y ago
NYC subway turnstiles are my go-to example of bad audio UX because they make the same noise after a successful swipe as after a failure!!