NOTAM Visualization Overlay for Electronic Flight Bags
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Solution Overview
Problem
Flight crews face difficulties in discerning relevant airport conditions from textual NOTAMs, especially in large airports with numerous runways and taxiways, as these notifications are typically presented in all uppercase letters with abbreviated terms, making it hard to identify critical information for flight planning.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method and system that receives NOTAMs, selects relevant ones indicating runway or taxiway closures, and generates graphical overlay data to be displayed on an electronic flight bag (EFB) map, allowing for visual representation of closure conditions, restrictions, and aircraft attribute limitations, facilitating easier interpretation by flight crews.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If NOTAMs are presented in traditional textual format with abbreviated terms, then information density is maintained, but readability and ease of interpretation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms NOTAM information from a one-dimensional textual format into a two-dimensional graphical overlay format. The system generates visual representations that map runway and taxiway closure conditions directly onto airport layout diagrams, allowing flight crews to perceive spatial relationships and closure conditions visually rather than through text interpretation. This dimensional transformation maintains complete information while dramatically improving readability and quick comprehension.
2Loss of information
If all NOTAMs are displayed to provide complete information, then information completeness is maintained, but information overload increases making it difficult to identify critical conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts and isolates only the critical closure conditions from the complete set of NOTAMs. By filtering for runway and taxiway closure information specifically, the system separates essential safety-critical data from other operational information. This extracted subset is then presented graphically, allowing flight crews to quickly identify critical conditions without being overwhelmed by the full text of all NOTAMs, while the underlying system retains access to complete information for reference.
3Productivity
If textual NOTAMs use standard aviation abbreviations to minimize length, then communication efficiency is improved, but understanding difficulty increases for flight crews
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs color-coding in the graphical overlay to convey different types of closure conditions and their severity levels. Critical closures are highlighted with distinct colors, allowing flight crews to immediately grasp the nature and urgency of conditions without needing to interpret aviation abbreviations. This visual encoding maintains the efficiency of concise communication while eliminating the understanding barrier created by standardized abbreviations.
Data Source
AI summary
A computer-implemented method for communicating information to an electronic flight bag device (EFB) comprises receiving one or more notification to airmen messages (NOTAMs) that specify conditions associated with one or more runways or taxiways of an airport. The computing system selects from among the received NOTAMs one or more NOTAMs that specify particular conditions under which corresponding runways or taxiways are or will be closed to aircraft traffic. For each selected NOTAM, the computing system generates overlay data that specifies a graphical representation indicative of the particular conditions under which the corresponding runway or taxiway is or will be closed. The computing system communicates the overlay data associated with the selected NOTAMs to the EFB. The graphical representations specified by the overlay data are configured to be overlayed on a map that depicts runways and taxiways and that is configured to be presented by the EFB.