Eye Tracking – Support for operations controllers

Apr 21, 2016

Lufthansa Systems develops innovative feature for NetLine/Ops ++ operations control solution

Lufthansa Systems today announced the new Eye Tracking feature for its innovative NetLine/Ops ++ operations control solution powered by eye tracking technology leader SensoMotoric Instruments (SMI). Analyzing eye movements can support the complex work of operations controllers, improve the quality of their decisions and help airlines save time and money.

The operations control center is responsible for monitoring flight operations and managing schedule changes – both planned and unplanned – in a way that minimizes their effect on passengers. Operations controllers may have to keep an eye on six monitors at a time which show current flights and information about potential disruptions. This is a huge challenge, and intelligent software solutions such as NetLine/Ops ++ provide substantial support here.

Thanks to its Management by Exception approach, NetLine/Ops ++ generally only displays flights that have encountered organizational problems and require a decision to be made. In these cases, the system also sends alerts and makes the user aware of the problem. This is where the eye tracking technology comes in. It analyzes the eye movements of operations controllers to determine whether they have noticed important messages or require an additional alert, such as a sound.

“NetLine/Ops ++ from Lufthansa Systems is already a leading operations control solution. Thanks to the new Eye Tracking feature, we can further improve the quality of our customers’ operations control centers,” said Daniel Stecher, Senior Product Manager Operations Control IT Solutions at Lufthansa Systems. “In order to provide our customers with the highest standard of quality, we are relying on the expertise and extensive experience of SensoMotoric Instruments.”

Eye tracking offers other advantages as well. For one thing, it can help novices learn by showing them extra alerts. This gets them up to speed more quickly and guarantees consistently high-quality decisions regardless of an employee’s level of experience. Furthermore, Lufthansa Systems can evaluate how operations controllers are using NetLine/Ops ++ and then make specific improvements and enhancements to the solution based on the findings.

“SensoMotoric Instruments has been a world leader in eye tracking technology for more than 25 years and we are delighted our robust and trusted technology is set to optimize the use of NetLine/Ops ++,” said SMI Managing Director Eberhard Schmidt. “It is further proof of the value our eye tracking platform provides when used to enhance operator and application performance in industry verticals such as flight operations management with Lufthansa Systems.”

The operations control solution from Lufthansa Systems is now being used by 69 airlines around the world, 31 of which have already deployed the new-generation solution, NetLine/Ops ++. Many airlines which according to a current OAG (Official Airline Guide) report have the best on-time performance worldwide are using NetLine/Ops or NetLine/Ops.

This video shows, how NetLine/Ops ++ with Eye Tracking supports operations controllers and improves the quality of their decisions:
https://youtu.be/ThPpQjZIeXM

Caption: NetLine/Ops ++ with eye tracking technology (Copyright „SensoMotoric Instruments“)