Aircraft Correlative Displays: Cross-Display Highlighting and Decluttering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Aircraft cockpit displays often present data from different perspectives and scales, making it challenging and time-consuming for pilots to correlate data between them, leading to increased workload and potential interpretation errors.
Innovation Solution
A correlative display system that links features across multiple display systems in an aircraft, using a processor to identify selected features on one display and highlight them on others, and performs smart decluttering to prioritize and remove overlapping identifiers based on predefined priorities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If multiple displays show data from different perspectives and scales, then information completeness is improved, but data correlation difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a cursor as an intermediary tool that pilots can use to select and correlate features across multiple displays. The cursor acts as a mediator that links the pilot's interaction with one display to corresponding features on other displays, enabling systematic correlation without requiring pilots to mentally track multiple perspectives simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides visual feedback by highlighting selected features on all displays when a pilot selects a feature on any display. This feedback mechanism confirms the correlation between displays and helps pilots understand the relationship between different perspectives and scales, reducing the cognitive load of data correlation.
2Loss of information
If all identifiers are displayed on crowded displays, then information completeness is improved, but readability decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and removes overlapping or redundant identifiers from the display when they would reduce readability. The system intelligently determines which identifiers to remove based on their overlap with selected features and their importance, extracting only the necessary information for maintaining readability while preserving critical data.
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies different display qualities to different regions of the display. Critical identifiers that do not overlap with selected features are displayed normally, while overlapping identifiers are removed or dimmed. This local quality adjustment ensures that important information remains visible while eliminating visual clutter in specific areas.
3Reliability
If features are highlighted across all displays, then situational awareness is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal highlighting mechanism that works across all display types and perspectives. The same cursor selection and feature highlighting logic is applied uniformly to vertical situation displays, lateral situation displays, and other display types, reducing the need for display-specific correlation logic and simplifying the overall system architecture.
Data Source
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AI summary
A system and method of operating a correlative display system for a plurality of display systems on an aircraft includes receiving, by a processor, an identification of a feature from a user interface associated with a first display system of the plurality of display systems. The processor determines a location of the identified feature relative to data displayed on each other display system of the plurality of display systems, wherein the identified feature is not previously displayed on at least one of the other display systems of the plurality of display systems. The processor generates instructions to highlight the identified feature on each other display system of the plurality of display systems at the determine location relative to data displayed on each other display system