Flight Display Visual Feature Filtering for Pilot Workload Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current mapping systems for aerial vehicles under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) are cluttered with numerous features, increasing pilot workload and awareness requirements, as they display all possible features without distinguishing between useful and non-useful ones.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that uses a flight display with a programmable device, input device, and memory to compare environmental conditions with feature characteristics, selectively displaying only the most relevant visual features based on altitude, visibility, and environmental factors on a display screen.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If all possible features are included in the map, then the map provides comprehensive information, but the map becomes cluttered and increases pilot workload
Solution Approach 1:
The map display dynamically adapts its content based on real-time environmental conditions. The system continuously monitors variables such as altitude, weather, and lighting conditions, and automatically adjusts which features are displayed on the map. This dynamic filtering ensures that only relevant features are shown under current operating conditions, reducing pilot workload while maintaining information completeness.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes display parameters based on environmental conditions. By monitoring parameters like altitude, weather visibility, and lighting, the system adjusts the map's feature selection parameters. For example, at higher altitudes, the system may prioritize displaying terrain features over water bodies, while in poor weather conditions, it emphasizes features with high visual contrast. This parameter adaptation resolves the contradiction by making the map both comprehensive and operationally efficient.
2Loss of information
If all possible features are displayed on the map, then no useful information is lost, but the map becomes cluttered with non-useful features
Solution Approach 1:
The map display applies local quality by selectively emphasizing different types of features based on the current operational context. Instead of uniformly displaying all features, the system identifies and highlights locally relevant features—such as showing detailed terrain features when the aircraft is at low altitude or emphasizing water bodies when flying over oceans. This localized feature prioritization maintains useful information visibility while reducing overall map clutter.
Solution Approach 2:
The system extracts and removes non-useful features from the map display based on environmental condition analysis. By continuously evaluating conditions such as altitude, weather visibility, and aircraft speed, the system identifies features that are unlikely to be useful in the current context and excludes them from the display. This extraction process maintains comprehensive information while eliminating harmful clutter.
3Loss of information
If the map displays comprehensive features, then navigation information is complete, but the pilot must increase awareness to distinguish useful features
Solution Approach 1:
The system incorporates feedback loops that continuously monitor environmental conditions and adjust the map display accordingly. Sensors detect variables such as altitude changes, weather conditions, and lighting variations, and this feedback information is used to automatically reconfigure which features are displayed. This feedback mechanism ensures that navigation information remains complete while automatically adjusting the display to reduce feature distinction difficulty for the pilot.
Solution Approach 2:
The map system performs self-service by automatically adapting its own display characteristics based on environmental conditions without requiring pilot intervention. The system self-regulates which features are shown, adjusting the balance between information completeness and feature distinguishability autonomously. This self-service capability maintains comprehensive navigation information while reducing the pilot's cognitive load for feature identification.
Data Source
AI summary
The system for presenting visual features to a pilot of an aerial vehicle contains a flight display. The flight display includes a display screen, a programmable device, an input device, and a memory. A plurality of visual features is contained in the memory. A plurality of feature characteristics is contained in the memory. Each of the feature characteristics is linked to at least one of the features. An environmental device communicates with the input device. The environmental device inputs an approximately present environmental condition of the aerial vehicle to the input device. The programmable device compares the approximately present environmental condition to the feature characteristics to determine which of the features stored in the memory to display on the flight display.