Aircraft Moving Map Display Symbol Opacity Control

Solution Overview

Problem

Aircraft cockpit displays often clutter the flight crew with non-essential aeronautical symbols that are relevant to other segments of the flight route, leading to information overload, as removing these symbols is not feasible since they may be important for other segments.

Innovation Solution

A situational awareness system that determines the relative importance of aeronautical symbols based on the aircraft's route of intended travel and uses alpha-blending to de-emphasize non-essential symbols by adjusting their opacity, reducing visual clutter and information overload.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of information

If all aeronautical symbols are displayed on the moving map, then complete navigation information is provided for all flight segments, but information overload and visual clutter occur for the current segment

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvenavigation information completenessVSAvoidinformation overload

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies local quality by adjusting the opacity of aeronautical symbols based on their relevance to the current flight segment. Symbols are displayed with full opacity when relevant to the current segment and with reduced opacity when relevant only to future segments, creating spatially varying display quality that optimizes information presentation for the pilot's current needs while preserving access to future navigation information.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

2Object-affected harmful factors

If non-essential symbols are removed from the display, then visual clutter is reduced, but symbols needed for future segments become unavailable

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvevisual clutterVSAvoidfuture segment information

Core Design Contradiction:

Object-affected harmful factorsVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements dynamics by making symbol opacity adjustable and changeable based on flight progress. As the aircraft moves through different segments, the relevance of symbols changes dynamically, and the display automatically adjusts symbol opacity accordingly. This dynamic approach allows symbols to transition from high opacity (currently relevant) to low opacity (future relevance) without being completely removed, maintaining information availability while reducing clutter.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

3Reliability

If all aeronautical symbols are displayed with full opacity, then all navigation information is clearly visible, but the display becomes cluttered and harder to interpret for current segment navigation

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvenavigation information clarityVSAvoiddisplay interpretability

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies local quality by adjusting the opacity of aeronautical symbols based on their relevance to the current flight segment. Symbols are displayed with full opacity when relevant to the current segment and with reduced opacity when relevant only to future segments, creating spatially varying display quality that optimizes information presentation for the pilot's current needs while preserving access to future navigation information.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

Data Source

PatentEP1969316B1Methods and systems for controlling display of en-route maps

Publication Date: 2013.02.27 THE BOEING CO

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3

AI summary

Methods and systems for a displaying a moving map display for an aircraft is provided. The method includes determining a route of intended travel of the aircraft on the moving map display, determining a rank of relative importance of a plurality of aeronautical symbols displayed on the moving map display based on the determined route of intended travel, and de-emphasizing at least one navigation symbol with the moving map display based on the at least one navigation symbol determined rank.