Voice Enabled Traffic Prioritization for Cockpit Displays

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Solution Overview

Problem

Pilots face high cognitive workload when responding to traffic alerts, as they need to comprehend audible information and visually locate aircraft on complex displays, increasing the risk of error and workload during flight operations.

Innovation Solution

A system and method that uses speech recognition to identify traffic alerts and visually depict neighboring aircraft on the aircraft's display, generating a probability zone around the alerted aircraft to prioritize and distinguish them, reducing the visual and manual workload by employing a voice-enabled traffic prioritization module.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If the pilot manually identifies and locates the subject aircraft on the traffic display after hearing a traffic alert, then the pilot can respond to the alert, but the visual and manual cognitive workload increases significantly

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvetraffic alert response accuracyVSAvoidpilot cognitive workload
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The system introduces an intermediary automated process between the traffic alert and the pilot. The speech recognition system acts as a mediator that automatically processes the audible traffic alert, identifies the subject aircraft, and highlights it on the display, eliminating the need for the pilot to manually search through multiple aircraft on the traffic display.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The system enables self-service by allowing the traffic alert system to automatically identify and highlight the subject aircraft without requiring pilot intervention. The speech recognition and automated identification processes perform the task independently, reducing the pilot's workload to simply monitoring the highlighted aircraft.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

2Loss of information

If the traffic display shows all neighboring aircraft, then complete traffic information is provided, but the subject aircraft becomes difficult to locate among multiple aircraft

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvetraffic information completenessVSAvoidsubject aircraft identification
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSDifficulty of detecting and measuring

Solution Approach 1:

The system applies local quality by making the subject aircraft visually distinct from other aircraft on the display. Once the speech recognition system identifies the subject aircraft from the traffic alert, it applies special visual highlighting (such as color changes, symbols, or positioning) to that specific aircraft, allowing the pilot to easily distinguish it from other neighboring aircraft while maintaining complete traffic information on the display.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Data Source

PatentEP3073467B1Systems and methods for voice enabled traffic prioritization
Publication Date: 2019.12.04 HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL INC
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AI summary

A system and method capable of responding to an audible traffic alert by visually depicting the identified neighboring aircraft traffic on the onboard display is presented. The system and method employ speech recognition in order to minimize the visual and manual cognitive workload associated with responding to a traffic alert. The system and method maximize the pilot's hands-on control of the host aircraft.