Annotated Aircraft Camera Display for Airport Feature Recognition
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing aircraft navigation systems lack the ability to quickly and accurately identify and assess relevant visual information in the environment surrounding the aircraft, particularly for general aviation applications.
Innovation Solution
A method for generating an airport feature-annotated streaming image by receiving a live-streaming image from an aircraft camera, determining the location of airport features, and overlaying identifiers such as pins, shape outlines, and text labels onto the image to provide navigation information.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If traditional navigation displays are used, then the system is simple, but the pilot cannot quickly identify and assess relevant visual information in the surrounding environment
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the live camera feed with navigation data and airport feature information into a single composite display. The system overlays identified airport features (runways, taxiways, landmarks) directly onto the video stream, allowing pilots to simultaneously view real-time visual information and navigation-relevant annotations without switching between multiple displays or mentally correlating separate data sources.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary processing layer that automatically identifies airport features in the camera feed, determines their locations, and generates annotations. This intermediary component acts as a bridge between the raw visual input and the pilot's decision-making process, pre-processing the information to highlight only navigation-relevant features and their spatial relationships.
2Loss of information
If comprehensive navigation information is displayed, then situational awareness is improved, but the display becomes cluttered and harder to interpret
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies local quality by providing detailed information only at specific locations where airport features are detected. Rather than uniformly displaying all navigation data across the entire screen, the system places annotations (such as runway identifiers, taxiway labels, and landmark markers) precisely at their corresponding spatial locations in the camera feed, allowing pilots to access detailed information locally while maintaining a clean overall display.
Solution Approach 2:
The display is segmented into functional regions: the primary video feed showing the forward view, overlaid annotation elements identifying specific airport features, and minimal navigation context. This segmentation allows the system to present comprehensive information in a structured, non-cluttered manner where each element serves a specific purpose and can be quickly scanned.
3Loss of time
If real-time processing of camera feed is performed, then current navigation information is provided, but processing time and computational resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by pre-identifying and tracking airport features as they appear in the camera feed. Rather than analyzing the entire image frame for all possible features at full resolution, the system uses preliminary detection methods (such as feature tracking from previous frames or coarse-to-fine detection) to quickly locate and annotate navigation-relevant elements, reducing overall processing requirements while maintaining real-time performance.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for providing a streaming display with navigation information on an aircraft. The method includes receiving a streaming image from a camera on the aircraft, receiving navigation information representative of a location and orientation of the aircraft, and receiving airport feature information associated with each of one or more airport features. Based upon the navigation information and the airport feature information, a location of each airport feature with respect to the streaming image is determined. An airport feature identifier for each airport feature, and an airport feature-annotated streaming image based upon the streaming image are generated. The airport feature-annotated image includes each airport feature identifier, and each airport feature identifier is at a location in the feature-annotated streaming image corresponding to a location of the associated airport feature. The airport feature-annotated streaming image is displayed in the aircraft.