A Toolset to Support the Development of Spatial and Temporal Judgment Experiments for Synthetic Vision Systems

Synthetic vision systems (SVS) are cockpit technologies which depict computer generated perspective displays of terrain surrounding an aircraft in order to prevent incidents of controlled flight into terrain. This paper describes a toolset designed to support an experiment that assessed the ability of different SVS displays to convey spatial awareness (the ability of a pilot to identify terrain, his ability to identify its relative location, and his ability to identify its relative location in the future) using spatial and temporal judgments. This toolset was used successfully to design and conduct this experiment. Work is currently being conducted to generalize the applicability of the toolset so that it can be used to support a wider range of experiments