Tactical Displays for Combat Awareness: An Examination of Dimensionality and Frame of Reference Concepts and the Application of Cognitive Engineering

Abstract

Three prototype displays are contrasted for aircraft navigation and tactical hazard awareness: a conventional 2-D coplanar display, an exocentric (God's eye) 3-D display, and an immersed (pilot's eye) 3-D display coupled with a small scale global display. Strengths and weaknesses of each display type are discussed, related particularly to the ambiguity of perspective displays and to attention allocation problems with dual-display suites. In Experiment 1, 8 pilots flew with each of the displays around an airspace populated by waypoints, hazards, and traffic. Performance measures revealed the anticipated costs and benefits of each display type. In Experiment 2, cognitive engineering techniques of performance and cognitive task analysis were applied to remediate the weaknesses of each display type. Emphasis was placed on display enhancements to resolve 3-D ambiguity and visual momentum and cueing techniques to facilitate attention allocation and switching. Analysis of performance of 27 additional participants in flight path tracking and hazard awareness measures revealed success in application of the cognitive engineering principles, greatly attenuating the weaknesses of each display.