Visual Search Assistance for Vehicle Occupants
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Solution Overview
Problem
Pilots face challenges in maintaining situational awareness due to cluttered cockpits and complex environments, making it difficult to visually locate external aircraft or internal cockpit elements, especially in new or unfamiliar areas, and to quickly identify important alerts and displays.
Innovation Solution
A visual search assistance system that dynamically determines the desired line-of-sight vector to a visual target and compares it with the actual line-of-sight vector using onboard tracking systems, generating notifications to redirect the pilot's gaze when the difference exceeds a threshold, employing eye and head tracking technologies, GPS data, and display systems for real-time guidance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If the cockpit contains a large amount of instrumentation, controls, switches, displays, and indicator lights, then the functionality and information availability are improved, but the difficulty of visually identifying a specific item increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors the occupant's gaze direction using eye and head tracking, compares it with the desired line-of-sight to the target, and provides feedback through notifications when the gaze deviates from the target, enabling the occupant to quickly locate and identify specific items among the cluttered instrumentation
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary system consisting of gaze tracking technology, vector calculation algorithms, and notification mechanisms that mediate between the occupant and the complex cockpit environment, translating the occupant's visual attention into actionable guidance to locate specific items
2Measurement precision
If the visual search assistance system continuously monitors and provides guidance, then the accuracy of locating visual targets is improved, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs a multi-functional integrated approach where a single system performs multiple functions: eye tracking, head tracking, vector calculation, target identification, and notification generation, thereby achieving high measurement precision without proportionally increasing overall system complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses the occupant's own gaze behavior as the input signal, eliminating the need for external controllers or complex interaction interfaces. The occupant simply looks at the target, and the system automatically detects, processes, and provides guidance, reducing the complexity of user-system interaction
3Loss of time
If the system generates notifications to redirect gaze, then the time to locate visual targets is reduced, but the frequency of notifications and potential distraction increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies partial action by generating notifications only when the gaze deviation exceeds a threshold value, rather than continuously notifying for any deviation. This selective notification approach reduces the frequency of alerts while still effectively guiding the occupant to locate visual targets within acceptable time frames
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts the notification threshold parameter based on the operational context and target importance, changing the sensitivity of the notification system to balance between quick target location and minimizing distracting alerts
Data Source
AI summary
A visual search assistance system and related operating method are disclosed. An exemplary embodiment of the method dynamically determines a desired line-of-sight vector from an occupant of a vehicle to a visual target, and dynamically determines, with an onboard tracking system of the vehicle, an actual line-of-sight vector for the occupant of the vehicle. The actual line-of-sight vector is temporally associated with the desired line-of-sight vector. The method compares the actual line-of-sight vector against the desired line-of-sight vector to obtain a difference measurement, and generates a notification when the obtained difference measurement exceeds a threshold value. The notification provides guidance to redirect a gaze direction of the occupant toward the visual target.