ATC Transcription App Traffic Filtering for Pilot Workload Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Air traffic control message transcriptions overwhelm pilots with irrelevant traffic information, increasing pilot workload and reducing situational awareness due to the need to review messages from both proximate and non-proximate aircraft, which can lead to inefficient navigation and potential conflicts.
Innovation Solution
A transcription app categorizes aircraft into proximate and non-proximate traffic based on defined ranges, allowing pilots to selectively display and filter messages through a graphical user interface, prioritizing relevant communications and reducing clutter, using Automatic Dependent Surveillance (ADS) and Traffic Information System-Broadcast (TIS-B) data for sorting and decluttering.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If all traffic messages are displayed to provide complete situational awareness, then pilots gain comprehensive knowledge of aircraft operations, but pilot workload increases and head-down time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments traffic messages into two distinct categories: proximate traffic messages (within a threshold distance) and non-proximate traffic messages (beyond the threshold distance). This segmentation allows the system to selectively display only relevant proximate messages while filtering out non-proximate messages, thereby maintaining situational awareness for critical traffic while reducing overall message volume and pilot workload.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by making the message display system adaptive to different spatial zones. Messages from proximate traffic (local area) are displayed with high priority and detail, while messages from non-proximate traffic (distant area) are filtered or displayed with reduced priority. This creates a quality gradient in information display that matches the operational relevance to the ownship aircraft.
2Loss of information
If all traffic messages are displayed to ensure complete information, then pilots can review all clearances, but navigation efficiency decreases due to unnecessary head-down time
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and removes non-proximate traffic messages from the displayed message set, keeping only proximate traffic messages that are within the threshold distance. This extraction process eliminates irrelevant information that would otherwise require pilot review time, thereby maintaining navigation efficiency while still providing complete information about operationally relevant traffic.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies partial action by displaying only a subset of available messages—specifically, only those from proximate traffic—rather than displaying all messages from all traffic. This partial display approach is sufficient for safe operations since distant traffic poses minimal collision risk, thus improving navigation efficiency without compromising safety.
3Loss of information
If proximate and non-proximate traffic messages are mixed, then all clearance information is available, but message relevance and collision avoidance focus are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the mixed traffic message stream into distinct proximate and non-proximate categories based on distance threshold. This segmentation ensures that proximate traffic messages, which are critical for collision avoidance, are clearly separated and prioritized for display, while non-proximate messages are filtered out. The separation maintains complete information availability for proximate traffic while enhancing collision avoidance focus.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by assigning different display priorities and visibility levels to messages based on their spatial relationship to the ownship. Proximate traffic messages receive high priority and prominent display, while non-proximate messages are either filtered or displayed with low priority. This quality differentiation ensures that pilots focus attention on locally relevant messages that require immediate attention for collision avoidance.
Data Source
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AI summary
A method of displaying information is provided. The method includes displaying, by a transcription app, a set of traffic operating in airspace of a first category of traffic and second category traffic wherein the first category of traffic includes a set of aircraft that is operating within a defined range to the ownship in comparison to the second category of traffic that includes another set of aircraft that is operating outside the defined range to the ownship; classifying the first category of traffic at the closer distance to the ownship as proximate traffic and the second category of traffic at the further distance to the ownship as non-proximate traffic for enabling at least selection of either the proximate traffic or the non-proximate traffic on the display device for decluttering the display of traffic on the display device.