Measuring Traffic Awareness in an Integrated Hazard Display

Abstract

The ability for pilots to estimate traffic location, and how such estimations should be measured, was examined within an Integrated Hazard Display context. Twelve pilots viewed static images of traffic scenarios and then estimated the outside world locations of queried traffic represented in one of three display types (2D coplanar, 3D exocentric, and split-screen) and in one of four conditions (display present/blank crossed with outside world present/blank). Overall, the 2D coplanar display best supported both vertical (compared to 3D) and lateral (compared to split-screen) traffic position estimation performance. Furthermore, although pilots were faster in estimating traffic locations when the display was blank, accuracy was greatest when both the display and outside world were available.