Current research on advanced cockpit display systems

Current cockpit-display philosophy i s discussed i n terms of t h e p i l o t ' s informational requirements.P i l o t s ' scan p a t t e r n s obtained through t h e use of an eye-position camera and a ground-based simulator a r e depicted f o r a conventional display system and f o r two advanced concepts.Preliminary r e s u l t s of some f l i g h t -t e s t and ground-simulation evaluations of advanced concepts, such a s t o t a l l y i n t e g r a t e d displays and i n d i r e c t p i l o t viewing systems, are discussed.I N 2 O D U C T I O N With t h e increased performance of f l i g h t vehicles, a d d i t i o n a l and more exacting c o n t r o l requirements are being placed on t h e p i l o t , including an increasing demand f o r all-weather operation.increased workload, e f f e c t i v e u t i l i z a t i o n of t h e p i l o t can be achieved only through e f f e c t i v e design of the pilot-vehicle i n t e r f a c e , t h e d i s p l a y s .These d i s p l a y s must provide t h e proper information i n t h e proper form.The information required can 3e divided i n t o two categories, depending upon t h e u t i l i z a t i o n .a s s e s s t h e v e h i c l e ' s s i t u a t i o n with respect t o e i t h e r a desired end point o r some vehicle l i m i t --i s conventionally displayed i n t h e form of t h e q u a n t i t a t i v e values of vehicle performance and a t t i t u d e .The second category--information required by the p i l o t t o a s c e r t a i n what c o n t r o l inputs t o make--is usually i n t h e form of t h e d i r e c t i o n and magnitude of e r r o r of t h e c o n t r o l parameter from a preplamed or d e s i r e d condition.Although t h e parameters involved are generally t h e same, optimization of a display u n i t f o r e i t h e r category usually cannot.be accomplished without adversely a f f e c t i n g t h e d i s p l a y ' s czpa5ility i3 :he other category As a r e s u l t of t h i s The first category--information required by t h e p i l o t t oTraditionally, d i s p l a y s have been designed t o present t h e information required f o r t h e p i l o t i n g t a s k but not n e c e s s a r i l y i n a manner t h a t has made optimum u t i l i z a t i o n of the p i l o t ' s sensory c a p a b i l i t i e s .The recent development of a reasonably l i g h t and accurate eye-movement camera and t h e use of other instrumentation now affords a means of obt.aining quant.itativeinformation t h a t may be applied toward optimizing t h e p i l o t ' s d i s p l a y i n terms of both t h e mission and t h e p i l o t ' s workload.The camera records both t h e scene being viewed and t h e exact f i x a t i o n point of t h e eye on t h a t scene.The d a t a a r e i n t h e form of a real-time 16 mm movie of t h e display system with a superimposed white spot indicaking t h e p i l o t ' s eye *Head, Display and Guidance Section, NASA F l i g h