FAST: future technology for today's industry

A Review and Reappraisal of Task Guidance: Aiding Workers in Procedure Following

“…Such records may then be downloaded to data-keeping applications, thereby providing detailed records without requiring data entry after the task (Ockerman, Najjar, & Thompson, 1999). Such an institutional knowledge, resident at a common source of downloads, may also enable a more structured and reliable means of communication between team members.…”

“…Motivation aside, task guidance systems can easily allow the worker to access more detailed information, if the preprogramming investment of putting this information into the system is made (Ockerman, Najjar, & Thompson, 1999). This information may be about the task at hand, such as describing to a mechanic how an engine part will move in operation to facilitate detecting if the part wear is out of range; likewise, this information may be about the procedure, such as describing the rationale for asking the mechanic to look at this engine component at this point in the procedure and how it fits into the higher level "general" procedure (Catrambone, 1990).…”

“…Likewise, many inspection tasks have an information gathering component, such as jotting down fluid levels, faults found, and maintenance to be done. Designing the task guidance system to not only prompt for the action but also then easily receive and record the result eliminates the need for a separate data-recording mechanism (Ockerman, Najjar, & Thompson, 1999).…”

Recent developments in flexible wearable electronics for monitoring applications

“…The term has been used extensively recently to include various types of electronic devices that can be 'worn' on the body and used during physical activity. This broad definition includes common accessories such as pedometers and heart straps, as well as more complex interactive items such as monitoring rings (Yang and Rhee, 2000), armbands (Teller, 2004) and head-mounted computers (Mayol et al, 2002;Ockerman et al, 1999). This review does not, however, include such technologies, but rather, focuses on electronics integrated within items of clothing, to create 'flexible' wearable systems.…”