AAWSAP DIRD, Cockpits in the Era of Breakthrough Flight, November 2010

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A key feature of virtual displays will be the inclusion of augmented reality. This means
that key elements in the field of view are highlighted with color or framing to draw
attention37 to them. This includes adding obvious border lines to objects for which the
pilot needs to be aware . Similarly, a virtual display of the environment outside the craft
could be augmented to reveal characteristics outside the range of normal human vision
such as infrared and ultraviolet light, or objects too small or fast to normally be noticed.
Graphical and Alphanumeric Representations
Pictorial displays in combination with alphanumeric displays have been found to be an
effective way to convey information to a pilot. A pictorial representation of the item or
condition being controlled (maps, artificial horizons, graphical representations of vehicle
stores, and others) takes advantage of the interpretation paradigm of physical models,
and thus enhances comprehension and allows features to be recognized with less effort.
Although reading alphanumeric displays are more time consuming and workload
intensive, they provide more accurate values and are more easily relayed verbally to
secondary users (i.e., the value can be read aloud). It has also been found effective to
place the alphanumeric values in the upper-right corner of the graphical display. Other
lessons include the following: 38
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Using consistent text, format, placements, axes, and other parameters. 39
Consistency has been found to be more desirable than optimized displays.40
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Displaying parameters relative to their expected values rather than just displaying
the alphanumeric value. Some indication of the criticality of an off-nominal reading
also needs to be displayed.
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Using zero-value points as a reference and showing range settings on graphical
displays to indicate how a given value compares to the desired or predicted value;
all ranges should be roughly the same size if possible.
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Displaying nonessential symbols as half-intensity helps declutter displays.
Enunciators
Historically, all the major alarm indicators for a system were grouped together into
what is called the "enunciator panel." Usually, this panel is an array of rectangular
lights with each representing a possible alarm or critical-state variable (e.g ., 5 x 5
arrays of 25 discrete alarm channels). Frequently, the lights use the tripartite color
convention, blink to alert, and are connected to an audible alarm. There is usually some
means to acknowledge the alarm and thus stop the distracting blinking and noise
without canceling the alert status indication (e.g., goes from blinking with audible alarm
to just lit in red or yellow).
Old hardware displays unintentionally maintained a manageable number of alarm states
as an inadvertent, but positive, consequence of the difficulty of adding enunciator
segments. With computerized systems, however, this number can grow to be
overwhelming. Conversely, with computerized systems, analysis of vehicle operations
can reduce a large number of variables into a composite key status variable for alarm
states and offer pre-determined options of emergency responses to the pilot. Hence,
the concept of an enunciator can be quite useful if following these recommendations:
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