Improvement of engine room simulator visibility for maritime education training

Watch keeping marine engineers constantly gaze at the control consoles where many gauges and meters are installed and depend on the readings of those for the proper running conditions of machinery.

In ergonomics and psychology, when a person process at a given instant the information, that upper limit number of information is known as 7 ± 2 [1]. Humans can increase the memorized number of numerical value which is displayed on a meter panel by forming causalities and chunks or rhyming game etc., against a numerical value. It is a method to give a meaning and a value for meaningless number, and to increase the capacity that people can memorize. However, at the real work environment, engineer should be able to monitor the meters with moving needles that indicate the operating condition of the machineries that changes every moment and discriminate whether it is normal or abnormal. It needs not only remembering the numerical value, but also understands their meaning. Otherwise, they will not be able to manage the machinery and plant properly.

As a characteristic of the marine engine console panel, the location of the meters on panel and the painting are different by the manufacturers’ intention according to ship owners’ requests. It is necessary to select proper colors for panels and suitable placement of gauges and meters, in order to reduce physical fatigue and mental stress and improve the visibility and readability. However, if color selection is not harmony to each other, there is also the risk of causing discomfort to engineers.

In this study, to focus on the color scheme of the control console of the marine engine room. The meter panel color is changed, and it objectively evaluate by participant. We found the specific tendency in engineer group, also student’s group too.