ABSTRACT
X-ray screening of passengers’ luggage at airports is an important way of protecting against terrorism on aeroplanes. However, the effectiveness of detecting and recognizing potential terrorist threat items is determined by the level of human performance that can be achieved. Visual search and detection performance are influenced by familiarity with target features and the size and conspicuity of a target (nodule) – with larger and more conspicuous nodules receiving less visual attention than smaller and less conspicuous nodules. Participants were first familiarised with the type of images and the procedure. They then examined 50 luggage images in a random order, for an unlimited viewing time. The approach taken was to generate an area of interest (AOI) around each threat item and then to consider eye fixation data which fell within each AOI. Raw eye movement data were then grouped into meaningful fixations on the basis of fixation radius and the minimum fixation duration.
