Transverse vertical profile display for aeronautical routes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9237313-B2
Application number	US-6294908-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 4, 2008
Priority date	Apr 4, 2008
Publication date	Jan 12, 2016
Grant date	Jan 12, 2016

Abstract

A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for presenting terrain along a route on an aircraft display. A display is presented of a top view, a side view, and a transverse vertical profile view of terrain data along the route on the aircraft display. A plurality of graphical indicators of distance along the route is overlaid such that a graphical indicator in the plurality of graphical indicators in the top view corresponds to a same distance to a second graphical indicator in the side view and a third graphical indicator in the transverse vertical profile view.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer implemented method for presenting, on a display, terrain along a route of an aircraft, the computer implemented method comprising:
providing, using a location information unit, location information of the aircraft;
storing instructions, on a memory communicating with a processor, and the processor executing the instructions for:
simultaneously presenting on the aircraft display, a two-dimensional display of: a top view, a side view, and a transverse vertical profile view of terrain data along a selected portion of the route, the route corresponding to a flight plan loaded in a navigation unit, wherein the transverse vertical profile view comprises a cross-section display of a vertical slice of the terrain data, wherein the display presents the vertical slice as a front view, transverse to the route from the aircraft at the selected portion along the route; and
overlaying a plurality of graphical indicators of distance along the route such that a graphical indicator in the plurality of graphical indicators in the top view corresponds to a same distance to a second graphical indicator in the side view and a third graphical indicator in the transverse vertical profile view.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the graphical indicators in the plurality of graphical indicators displayed in the transverse vertical profile view are terrain contour lines.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:
color coding the plurality of graphical indicators such that the graphical indicator in the plurality of graphical indicators in the top view corresponds to the same distance to the second graphical indicator in the side view and the third graphical indicator in the transverse vertical profile view have a same color.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:
displaying a symbol for the aircraft in a position along the route in each of the top view and the side view of terrain data.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:
displaying a symbol for the aircraft in the transverse vertical profile view.

6. A computer implemented method for presenting terrain data, the computer implemented method comprising:
receiving in a processor, from a location information unit, location information of an aircraft;
storing instructions, on a memory communicating with the processor, and the processor executing the instructions for:
presenting a display of a top view, a side view, and a transverse vertical profile view of terrain along a selected portion of a route of a vehicle, wherein the transverse vertical profile view comprises a cross-section display of a vertical slice of the terrain, wherein the display presents the vertical slice as a front view, transverse to the route from the vehicle at the selected portion along the route;
presenting a two-dimensional view of the terrain along the route; and
displaying a set of graphical indicators correlating locations between the two dimensional view and the transverse vertical profile view, such that a first indicator in the graphical indicators in the top view corresponds to a same distance to a second indicator in the side view and a third indicator in the transverse vertical profile view.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the display of the transverse vertical profile view of the terrain along the portion of the route comprises a plurality of terrain contour lines representing the terrain.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the step of presenting the two dimensional view of the terrain along the route comprises:
presenting at least one of a top view of the route and a side view of the route.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the set of graphical indicators comprises at least one of color and graphical icons.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 6 , further comprising:
wherein the two-dimensional view comprises a top view and a side view; and
color coding the set of graphical indicators such that a graphical indicator in the set of graphical indicators in the top view corresponds to a same distance to the graphical indicator in the side view and the transverse vertical profile view that have a same color.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 6 further comprising:
displaying a symbol for an aircraft in a position along the portion of the route in the two dimensional view and the transverse vertical profile view of the terrain data.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the vehicle is one of an aircraft, a ship, a truck, a spacecraft, and a submariner.

13. An apparatus comprising:
a location information unit that provides location information of a vehicle;
a processor unit connected to the location information unit, such that the processor unit communicates with instructions stored in a memory to identify a location of the vehicle from the location information and generate an overlay of a plurality of indicators for: a top view, a side view, and a transverse vertical profile view of terrain data along a selected portion of a route, the route corresponding to a planned route loaded in a navigation unit, such that the transverse vertical profile view comprises a cross-section display of a vertical slice of the terrain data, wherein the overlay presents the vertical slice, as a front view, transverse to the route from the vehicle at the selected portion along the route, such that a first indicator in the plurality of indicators in the top view corresponds to a same distance to a second indicator in the side view and a third indicator in the transverse vertical profile view; and
a display connected to the processor unit, the display presenting in two dimensions: the top view, the side view, and the transverse vertical profile view of the terrain data at the selected portion along the route with the overlay.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the processor unit is the navigation unit for an aircraft.

15. The apparatus of claim 13 , further comprising the processor unit configured to code the plurality of indicators such that the first indicator in the plurality of indicators in the top view corresponds to the same distance to the second indicator in the side view and to the third indicator in the transverse vertical profile view comprising a same color.

16. A computer program product configured to present, on a display, terrain along a route of an aircraft, the computer program product comprising:
input from a location information unit that provides location information of the aircraft;
a non-transitory computer readable medium;
program code, stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium, communicating with a processor and simultaneously presenting a display in two dimensions of: a top view, a side view, and a transverse vertical profile view of terrain data, along a selected portion of the route on the aircraft display, the route corresponding to a flight plan loaded in a navigation unit, wherein the transverse vertical profile view comprises a cross-section display of a vertical slice of the terrain data, wherein the display presents the vertical slice as a front view, transverse to the route, from the aircraft at the selected portion along the route; and
program code, stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium, configured to overlay a plurality of graphical indicators of distance, from the aircraft, along the route such that a first graphical indicator in the plurality of graphical indicators in the top view cor

Assignees

• Aspen Sven David
• Boeing Co

Inventors

• Aspen Sven David

Classifications

• H04N7/18 Primary

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