3D Visualization to Mitigate Weather Hazards in the Flight Deck: Findings from a User Study

Catherine Letondal (1, 2) , Cédric Zimmerman (2) , Jean-Luc Vinot (1, 2) , Stéphane Conversy (1, 2)

1 LII - ENAC - Equipe Informatique Interactive
2 ENAC - Ecole Nationale de l'Aviation Civile

In this paper, we report on our exploration of 3D representations to support temporal navigation. We ground our discussion in a user study on the design of a tool that helps airliner pilots to manage dangerous and tall thunderstorm cells. The tool enables pilots to visualize thunderstorm cells, navigate into meteorological predictions in the near future and evaluate safe paths . The visualization is provided on the dual 2D horizontal/vertical view that is already used on the flight deck. In lieu of t he standard 2D vertical view, the tool use s a 3D view t hat facilitates tracking of cells sliding along time slots and altitudes. The user navigates along two dimensions, heading and time slots, thanks to a rotary knob - button. The design is grounded in field studies with pilots. Prototypes have been iteratively evaluated during design walkthrough sessions with pilots. From the preliminary results of this study, we draw research questions related to the need of 3D in the cockpit navigation displays

Mots clés: cockpit display; in - vehicle 3D user interfaces; aeronautics; meteorological data; contextual design; temporal data; ethnography; 2D/3D

Domaines: Informatique [cs]; Interface homme-machine [cs.HC]

Catherine Letondal, Cédric Zimmerman, Jean-Luc Vinot, Stéphane Conversy. 3D Visualization to Mitigate Weather Hazards in the Flight Deck: Findings from a User Study. 3DUI 2015, 3DUI 2015 IEEE 10th Symposium on 3D User Interfaces, Mar 2015, Arles, France. ⟨hal-01112005⟩