En-route Terrain Display Uniform Background for Readability

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Solution Overview

Problem

Aircraft cockpit displays often overwhelm pilots with excessive information, including terrain depictions that reduce symbol clarity and cause confusion during navigation and flight planning, as they include data not relevant to the current flight segment.

Innovation Solution

An en-route visible terrain display system that represents each pixel using geographical location and elevation, setting color or grayscale values below a minimum elevation to a uniform value, creating a clear background for primary navigation areas and reducing visual clutter.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of information

If terrain depictions are displayed on the cockpit display, then situational awareness is improved, but symbol clarity and readability are reduced due to information overload

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesituational awarenessVSAvoidsymbol clarity and readability

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies local quality by making different regions of the display have different terrain visibility characteristics. The monochromatic overlay is selectively applied to specific geographic areas (below minimum elevation values) while leaving other areas with full color terrain information, allowing symbol clarity to be improved in specific locations without sacrificing overall situational awareness

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The patent uses color changes by converting colored terrain depictions to monochromatic (grayscale) representations in areas where the monochromatic overlay is applied. This color transformation reduces visual clutter and improves symbol readability in non-terrain-impacted areas while maintaining terrain information through grayscale shading

Inventive Principle:

Principle #32Color changes

2Quantity of substance

If comprehensive terrain data is displayed, then complete terrain information is provided, but visual clutter and confusion increase in non-terrain-impacted areas

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveterrain informationVSAvoidvisual clutter and confusion

Core Design Contradiction:

Quantity of substanceVSObject-generated harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts the harmful visual clutter effect by applying a monochromatic overlay that removes color information from terrain depictions in specific areas. This extraction of color while retaining elevation data through grayscale shading eliminates the harmful visual clutter in non-terrain-impacted areas while preserving necessary terrain information

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Data Source

PatentUS8340837B2Methods and systems for generating en-route visible terrain displays

Publication Date: 2012.12.25 JEPPESEN FOREFLIGHT INC

AI summary

Methods and systems for displaying an en-route visible terrain display for an aircraft are provided. The method includes representing each pixel of a terrain display using a geographical location and an elevation above the location, each pixel further represented using at least one of a color value and a grayscale value, receiving a minimum elevation value, setting the at least one of a color value and a grayscale value of the pixels represented by an elevation value less than the received minimum elevation value to a uniform value, and displaying the en-route visible terrain display such that pixels representing terrain that includes an elevation value less than the minimum elevation value are displayed with the uniform value such that non-terrain-impacted, primary-navigation areas of the display are more easily readable.