Apparatus and method for providing attitude reference for vehicle passengers

An aircraft system, comprising:

• at least one monitor including a first monitor, each of the at least one monitor implemented as a virtual window, each of the at least one monitor configured to display a given view outside of an aircraft, each view corresponding to a field of view of a passenger looking at a given monitor as if the given monitor were a real aircraft window;
• at least one camera including a first camera, each of the at least one camera configured to capture video of the given view outside of the aircraft, the given view corresponding to the field of view of the passenger looking at the given monitor as if the given monitor were the real aircraft window;
• at least one pivot motor including a first pivot motor, the first pivot motor configured to change an orientation of a field of view of the first camera relative to the aircraft based on a position of the passenger;
• and
• a sensor configured to sense the position of the passenger, wherein the sensor is a camera or a seat position sensor configured to detect a position of a seat for the passenger,
• wherein when the passenger is in a first detected position, one or more of the at least one camera directly feeds the video to one of the at least one monitor and when the passenger is in a second detected position, different from the first detected position, one or more of the at least one camera non-directly feeds the video to the one of the at least one monitor, wherein the directly fed video has lower latency than the non-directly fed video,
• wherein each of the at least one camera is configured to change an amount of zoom to provide a correct vertical angular field of view for the passenger based on the position of the passenger.

A method, comprising:

• changing, by a first pivot motor, an orientation of a field of view of a first camera relative to a vehicle based on a position of a passenger;
• sensing, by a sensor, the position of the passenger, wherein the sensor is a camera or a seat position sensor configured to detect a position of a seat for the passenger;
• wherein at least one monitor includes a first monitor, each of the at least one monitor implemented as a virtual window, each of the at least one monitor configured to display a given view outside of a vehicle, each view corresponding to a field of view of a passenger looking at a given monitor as if the given monitor were a real vehicle window;
• wherein at least one camera includes the first camera, each of the at least one camera configured to capture video of the given view outside of the vehicle, the given view corresponding to the field of view of the passenger looking at the given monitor as if the given monitor were the real vehicle window;
• wherein when the passenger is in a first detected position, one or more of the at least one camera directly feeds the video to one of the at least one monitor and when the passenger is in a second detected position, different from the first detected position, one or more of the at least one camera non-directly feeds the video to the one of the at least one monitor, wherein the directly fed video has lower latency than the non-directly fed video;
• and
• changing, by each of the at least one camera, an amount of zoom to provide a correct vertical angular field of view for the passenger based on the position of the passenger.