alarms

Verdict Reached for Air France Rio Crash

July 29, 2011
Thumbnail image for Verdict Reached for Air France Rio Crash

The BBC has reported the incident analysis of the Air France crash that killed 228 people was due to lack of pilot skill in dealing with a high altitude stall. Here is a link to the BEA Report from the Bureau d’Enquetes et d’Analyses. It’s a frightening read, as they give a moment by moment analysis of the last minutes in the cockpit. No emergency [...]

Read the full article →

False Alarms in the Hospital

February 16, 2011
Thumbnail image for False Alarms in the Hospital

NPR pointed me to a two-series in the Boston Globe examining the incessant din of patient alarms. The monitor repeatedly sounded an alarm — a low-pitched beep. But on that January night two years ago, the nurses at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton didn’t hear the alarm, they later said. They didn’t discover the patient had stopped breathing until [...]

Read the full article →

Honesty Hurts (especially when design is poor)

February 15, 2011
Thumbnail image for Honesty Hurts (especially when design is poor)

I enjoy the mix of economics and psychology, which is why I am a faithful reader of the Freakanomics blog. Their recent podcast on “pain” started off with a good human-factors-related tale of the problematic design of a subway alarm system. I have included a link below to the podcast, but the quick overview is that there is an ear [...]

Read the full article →

Impending Disasters Announced Via Computer

September 3, 2010
Thumbnail image for Impending Disasters Announced Via Computer

I had no idea that there were automated disaster warnings on planes, such one telling passengers to prepare to crash. Apparently they exist. Apparently it’s not too difficult to mistakenly broadcast them. From one article on the event: “This is an emergency announcement. We may shortly need to make an emergency landing on water.” … Passenger Michelle Lord said: “People [...]

Read the full article →

11 feet 8 inches

September 2, 2010

A train trestle in Durham, NC has a clearance of 11’8″. The typical height of a large rental truck ranges from 11’6″ (don’t bounce!) to 13’6″. How often do you think about clearance when driving? Do you think you could adjust to thinking about it 100% of the time in your rental truck? I’ve seen parking garages that have a [...]

Read the full article →

Code Chartreuse – “Too many codes”

August 9, 2010
Thumbnail image for Code Chartreuse – “Too many codes”

Enjoy memorizing this hospital sign! How about just announcing the issue rather than matching it first with a color? For example: “Attention, tornado!” seems like it would be effective. Elopement, by the way, means a patient with Alzheimer’s needs to be located. That makes “purple” a code within a code (and makes me want to watch Inception again). This is [...]

Read the full article →

Mining Tragedy Update

July 15, 2010
Thumbnail image for Mining Tragedy Update

There is new information on the West Virginia coal mine tragedy where the methane detectors were disabled to prevent automatic shut down of the machinery. This comes from NPR: Methane monitors are mounted on the massive, 30-foot-long continuous miners because explosive gas can collect in pockets near the roofs of mines. Methane can be released as the machine cuts into [...]

Read the full article →

Ahem…your heart has stopped

January 12, 2010
Thumbnail image for Ahem…your heart has stopped

Darin Ellis sends along this radio story about a woman’s robotic heart that has a malfunction warning system that literally breaks the textbook HF rules of alarm design.  I’ll let Darin explain the unfortunate issue: This woman, who is living thanks to a robotic heart, related a story of the “heart” malfunctioning.  Apparently, although not prone to malfunction, there is [...]

Read the full article →

1960′s Human Factors : The Titan II Missiles

January 12, 2009
Thumbnail image for 1960′s Human Factors : The Titan II Missiles

I went on a trip to Tucson over the holidays and toured the last Titan II missile silo. A brief history: from 1963-1982 these missiles were part of the cold war “peace through deterrance” and “assured mutual destruction.” In essence, they provided one reason not to attack the US: even were we destroyed, these missiles would still launch to destroy [...]

Read the full article →

Trust in Automation

April 22, 2008

I’ve heard a great deal about trust and automation over the years, but this has to be my favorite new example of over-reliance on a system. GPS routed bus under bridge, company says “The driver of the bus carrying the Garfield High School girls softball team that hit a brick and concrete footbridge was using a GPS navigation system that [...]

Read the full article →

Unusually quiet morning radio show

March 7, 2008

What if a Radio DJ hosted a morning show and no one heard? Lesson learned! I will try to make certain to hit ‘publish’ at the end of this post. From the article: “”I’ve been doing the show three days a week for 10 months and always pressed the button at the right moment. Goodness knows why I forgot this [...]

Read the full article →