Assessment and Enhancement of Synthetic Vision Systems Experimentation Software

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 evaluates a toolset designed to support experiments that assess the ability of different SVS displays to convey spatial awareness by having participants make spatial and temporal judgments after viewing videos of SVS displays in flight. The paper discusses the limitations of this toolset and identifies SVS experiments that the toolset could support. These experiments are used to derive requirements for toolset improvements. The paper then describes the toolset's current implementation status and establishes a trajectory for future development