Novice to Expert Real-time Knowledge Transition in the Context of X-ray Airport Security

The X-ray screening task is one of the most critical parts of the security processes at airports. Improving this task is directly related to the knowledge of the screeners who perform the task. This paper describes an investigation on real-time knowledge transition during security screeners’ performance of the x-ray screening task at airports. Using eye-tracking glasses, behaviours of ten novice and expert x-ray screeners were observed during the regular screening tasks. Results show that there is a direct relationship between expertise and the amount of knowledge gained by and transferred to security employees. Experts demonstrated a superior ability to transfer knowledge to other security employees when compared with novices. Given the evidence of real-time knowledge transfer during the screening task, future work of this research will focus on an intelligent interface proposal. This will facilitate the process of real-time knowledge transition better. A collaboration scenario supports this.