Dynamic Synthetic Flight Display Detail Adaptation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Modern flight deck displays often present cluttered and unnecessary information, especially when an aircraft is far from an airport, as they include detailed features that are not crucial for navigation at that phase of flight, leading to user unfriendliness and decreased situational awareness.
Innovation Solution
A dynamic synthetic flight display system that receives aircraft status data to progressively display airport features, varying the level of detail and resolution based on the aircraft's proximity and phase of flight, ensuring only essential information is shown, reducing clutter and enhancing usability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If detailed airport features are displayed at all phases of flight, then information completeness is improved, but display clutter increases and user-friendliness deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The display system dynamically adjusts the level of detail shown for airport features based on aircraft phase of flight and proximity to the airport. During approach and landing phases, detailed features are displayed, while at higher altitudes and earlier phases, simplified representations are shown. This dynamic adaptation resolves the contradiction by providing complete information when needed while maintaining clarity when detail is unnecessary.
Solution Approach 2:
Different levels of detail are applied to different airport features based on their relevance to the current flight phase. Critical features such as the active runway are displayed with high detail throughout the approach, while non-critical features like distant buildings or inactive runways are shown with reduced detail or omitted entirely. This selective detail application maintains information completeness for essential elements while reducing overall clutter.
2Loss of information
If detailed airport features are displayed, then situational awareness is improved, but display complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements dynamic complexity management by adjusting display detail based on flight phase and aircraft proximity to the airport. A control system monitors parameters such as altitude, distance to airport, and phase of flight to determine the appropriate level of detail. This resolves the contradiction by providing high situational awareness when the aircraft is close to the airport while reducing display complexity during enroute phases where detailed information is less critical.
Solution Approach 2:
Airport features are segmented into different categories based on their importance and relevance to the current flight phase. Critical navigation features are always displayed with appropriate detail, while less critical features are displayed with reduced detail or omitted. This segmentation allows the system to maintain situational awareness for essential elements while reducing overall display complexity by excluding or simplifying non-essential elements.
3Measurement precision
If high resolution graphical representation is displayed, then detail visibility is improved, but processing requirements and energy consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The display system dynamically adjusts resolution based on aircraft proximity to the airport and phase of flight. When the aircraft is in the approach or landing phase and close to the airport, high resolution rendering is enabled to provide detailed visibility of airport features. During enroute phases at higher altitudes, lower resolution rendering is used. This dynamic resolution adjustment maintains detail visibility when needed while significantly reducing processing requirements and energy consumption during phases where maximum detail is less critical.
Data Source
AI summary
A flight deck display system for an aircraft or other vehicle includes a first data source of visual feature data that is indicative of visual features of a location of interest, a second data source of flight data for the aircraft, a processor architecture, and a display element. The processor architecture is operatively coupled to the first data source and to the second data source, and it is configured to process the visual feature data, process the flight data, and, based upon the visual feature data and the flight data, generate image rendering display commands. The display element receives the image rendering display commands and, in response thereto, renders a dynamic graphical representation of the location of interest using the visual feature data. The dynamic graphical representation of the location conveys an amount of visible detail that varies as a function of the flight data.