Attempts to improve Perceptual Clarity in an Aircraft Display

Abstract

A VISUAL display recently developed for aircraft¹ offers three principal improvements for pilots. First, it is projected at windshield eye-level so that the pilot need make fewer changes in the direction of visual gaze (from “head-up”, outside the cockpit, to “head-down”, inside). Second, it is collimated, so that the pilot can fixate both display and external view with his eyes accommodated to physiological infinity. Third, the display is capable of presenting the simplest visual picture compatible with the current task of the pilot, so that it can exploit the unique ability of man to follow pictorial information without burdening him with rapidly changing numerical data. Fig. 1 shows the three basic elements of such a display.