Vehicular display system

A display system comprising the combination of:

• means for obtaining coordinates of a host craft and other objects situated within a predetermined distance from the host craft;
• and
• means for dynamically displaying said host craft and said other objects on a two-dimensional screen,
• wherein said host craft is displayed as being stationary and all objects on the screen are displayed at positions given by projections onto a principal plane of the screen of their positions in a three-dimensional coordinate system having an origin located at the position of the host craft and three mutually perpendicular coordinate axes, at least two of which appear to a viewer to be located outside the principal plane of the screen and such that all objects within a predetermined distance from the host craft, on all sides of the host craft, are therefore displayed relative to the three axes in a purely graphical manner which conveys to a user of the system the exact position of the other objects relative to the host craft without necessitating inclusion of alphanumeric characters in the display, said display system further comprising means for transforming said coordinates obtained by said host craft coordinate obtaining means into said three-dimensional coordinate system having said origin located at the position of the host craft, and
• wherein said display means further comprises means for indicating the direction of movement of said host craft and said other objects in relation to said coordinate system, said direction indicating means further comprising means for representing said other objects by four points connected by five lines to form tetrahedral object representations, one vertex of each of said object representations pointing in a direction of movement of a corresponding one of said objects in said coordinate system and the triangular side opposite each said one vertex having a smaller area than the other sides of the tetrahedral object representations.

A display system comprising the combination of:

• means for obtaining coordinates of a host craft and other objects situated within a predetermined distance from the host craft;
• and
• means for dynamically displaying said host craft and said other objects on a two-dimensional screen,
• wherein said host craft is displayed as being stationary and all objects on the screen are displayed at positions given by projections onto a principal plane of the screen of their positions in a three-dimensional coordinate system having an origin located at the position of the host craft and three mutually perpendicular coordinate axes, at least two of which appear to a viewer to be located outside the principal plane of the screen and such that all objects within a predetermined distance from the host craft, on all sides of the host craft, are therefore displayed relative to the three axes in a purely graphical manner which conveys to a user of the system the exact position of the other objects relative to the host craft without necessitating inclusion of alphanumeric characters in the display, said display system further comprising means for transforming said coordinates obtained by said host craft coordinate obtaining means into said three-dimensional coordinate system having said origin located at the position of the host craft, and
• wherein said coordinate system is a three-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system and further comprising means for generating a sphere of influence representation on the display screen, said sphere of influence representation including two circles, the first in the X-Y plane and the second in the Y-Z plane of said Cartesian coordinate system.

A display system comprising the combination of:

• means for obtaining coordinates of a host craft and other objects situated within a predetermined distance from the host craft;
• and
• means for dynamically displaying said host craft and said other objects on a two-dimensional screen,
• wherein said host craft is displayed as being stationary and all objects on the screen are displayed at positions given by projections onto a principal plane of the screen of their positions in a three-dimensional coordinate system having an origin located at the position of the host craft and three mutually perpendicular coordinate axes, at least two of which appear to a viewer to be located outside the principal plane of the screen and such that all objects within a predetermined distance from the host craft, on all sides of the host craft, are therefore displayed relative to the three axes in a purely graphical manner which conveys to a user of the system the exact position of the other objects relative to the host craft without necessitating inclusion of alphanumeric characters in the display, said display system further comprising means for transforming said coordinates obtained by said host craft coordinate obtaining means into said three-dimensional coordinate system having said origin located at the position of the host craft, and
• further comprising probability indicating means for indicating a probability of collision between one of the objects and the host craft,
• wherein said coordinate system is a Cartesian coordinate system and said probability indicating means includes means for generating a triangle, a first leg of said triangle extending from said origin to said one of the objects, and another leg of said triangle forming the projection of said first leg into the X-Y plane of said Cartesian coordinate system.

A display system comprising the combination of:

• means for obtaining coordinates of a host craft and other objects situated within a predetermined distance from the host craft;
• and
• means for dynamically displaying said host craft and said other objects on a two-dimensional screen,
• wherein said host craft is displayed as being stationary and all objects on the screen are display at positions given by projections onto a principal plane of the screen of their positions in a three-dimensional coordinate system having an origin located at the position of the host craft and three mutually perpendicular coordinate axes, at least two of which appear to a viewer to be located outside the principal plane of the screen and such that all objects within a predetermined distance from the host craft, on all sides of the host craft, are therefore displayed relative to the three axes in a purely graphical manner which conveys to a user of the system the exact position of the other objects relative to the host craft without necessitating inclusion of alphanumeric characters in the display, said display system further comprising means for transforming said coordinates obtained by said host craft coordinate obtaining means into said three-dimensional coordinate system having said origin located at the position of the host craft, and
• further comprising means for indicating deviation of the host craft from a desired heading,
• wherein said deviation from the desired heading indicating means includes means for generating a triangle, a first leg of which extends from said origin in the direction of the desired heading and a second leg extends from the origin in a direction of an actual heading of the host craft.

A display system comprising the combination of:

• means for obtaining coordinates of a host craft and other objects situated within a predetermined distance from the host craft;
• and
• means for dynamically displaying said host craft and said other objects on a two-dimensional screen,
• wherein said host craft is displayed as being stationary and all objects on the screen are displayed at positions given by projections onto a principal plane of the screen of their positions in a three-dimensional coordinate system having an origin located at the position of the host craft and three mutually perpendicular coordinate axes, at least two of which appear to a viewer to be located outside the principal plane of the screen and such that all objects within a predetermined distance from the host craft, on all sides of the host craft, are therefore displayed relative to the three axes in a purely graphical manner which conveys to a user of the system the exact position of the other objects relative to the host craft without necessitating inclusion of alphanumeric characters in the display, said display system further comprising means for transforming said coordinates obtained by said host craft coordinate obtaining means into said three-dimensional coordinate system having said origin located at the position of the host craft, and
• further comprising pendulum means for representing the orientation of the host craft in respect to the ground,
• wherein said pendulum means comprises a triangle, a first leg of which extends from the origin of said coordinate system in a direction perpendicular to the heading of the host craft and a second leg of which extends from the end of said first leg opposite the host craft in a direction which represents a vertical direction perpendicular to the ground.

A method of representing a host craft and its surrounding space on a display screen comprising the steps of

• (a) inputting a position and velocity for the host craft and at least one other object within a predetermined distance from the host craft;
• (b) transforming the position into a three-dimensional coordinate system having an origin at the host craft, said origin being fixed both in respect to the display screen and the host craft, and three mutually perpendicular coordinate axes, at least two of which appear to a viewer to be located outside the principal plane of the screen and such that all objects within a predetermined distance from the host craft, on all sides of the host craft, may be simultaneously displayed relative to the three axes in a purely graphical manner which conveys to a user of the system the exact location of the other object relative to the host craft without necessitating inclusion of alphanumeric characters in the display;
• and
• (c) displaying said host craft and said other object by projecting representations of said host craft and said other object in real time into said screen within said coordinate system,
• wherein step (c) comprises the step of drawing onto said display screen a representation of a sphere of influence defined by two circles for indicating a predetermined distance surrounding said host craft in three dimensions, the first circle representing a projection of an equatorial plane of said sphere of influence and the second circle representing a projection of a longitudinal plane of said sphere of influence onto said display screen.

A method of representing a host craft and its surrounding space on a display screen, comprising the steps of

• (a) inputting a position for the host craft and at least one other object within a predetermined distance from the host craft;
• (b) transforming the position into a three-dimensional coordinate system having an origin at the host craft, said origin fixed in respect to the display screen and the host craft, and three mutually perpendicular coordinate axes, at least two of which appear to a viewer to be located outside the principal plane of the screen and such that all objects within a predetermined distance from the host craft, on all sides of the host craft, may be simultaneously displayed relative to the three axes in a purely graphical manner which conveys to a user of the system the exact position of the other object relative to the host craft without necessitating inclusion of alphanumeric characters in the display;
• and
• (c) displaying said host craft and said other object by projecting representations of said host craft and said other object in real time onto said screen within said coordinate system,
• wherein step (c) further comprises the steps of drawing four points representing four vertices of a wind tee shape and connecting the four points by five lines to represent said host craft.

A method of representing a host craft and its surrounding space on a display screen, comprising the steps of

• (a) inputting a position for the host craft and at least one other object within a predetermined distance from the host craft;
• (b) transforming the position into a three-dimensional coordinate system having an origin at the host craft, said origin fixed in respect to the display screen and the host craft, and three mutually perpendicular coordinate axes, at least two of which appear to a viewer to be located outside the principal plane of the screen and such that all objects within a predetermined distance from the host craft, on all sides of the host craft, may be simultaneously displayed relative to the three axes in a purely graphical manner which conveys to a user of the system the exact position of the other object relative to the host craft without necessitating inclusion of alphanumeric characters in the display;
• and
• (c) displaying said host craft and said other object by projecting representations of said host craft and said other object in real time onto said screen within said coordinate system,
• wherein step (c) further comprises the steps of drawing at least one of said objects by drawing four points representing vertices of a wind tee shape and connecting the four points by at most six lines to represent said object.