Patent Application
20240192846
This application claims priority to foreign French patent application No. FR 2212864, filed on Dec. 7, 2022, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety.
The present invention relates to the field of aeronautics, and more particularly to the field of human-machine interactions within a cockpit of an aircraft.
Software developed for the field of avionics address critical functions and require a demanding level of supervision to ensure the required safety conditions are met. Their evolution is controlled and limited.
Digitization of technical media has been permitted through electronic flight bags (EFBs). An EFB is an electronic information-management device that helps the aircraft pilot perform flight-management tasks more easily and effectively with less paper. It is a general-purpose computer platform intended to reduce or replace paper-based reference material such as flight manuals, operating manuals and navigation charts.
The emergence of an increasingly developed connected network, to which the EFB is attached, has made it possible to envisage increasingly advanced open-world applications that complement the functionalities of the certified cockpit. The non-criticality of these applications, which are not subject to the DO178 certification process, permits rapid, regular and cost-effective evolution.
To facilitate operational continuity between avionics applications displayed in the cockpit and open-world applications natively displayed on the EFB, it would be advantageous to be able to display the content of open-world applications using one or more cockpit display screens. This makes it possible to increase the amount of space in the cockpit through avoidance of the use of an additional display screen. Specifically, use of an additional display screen may limit external visibility and require complex installation if it is to be within easy reach of the pilot. Furthermore, avionics display screens are able to achieve a display performance in terms of brightness and reduction of reflections that a tablet screen cannot.
To best integrate open-world applications and to facilitate pilot missions, it is known in the prior art to use a device to display open-world content on a cockpit display screen via a video connection. By “open-world”, what is meant is that the data are accessible to the general public. These data are said to be uncertified in the safety sense. The certified “cockpit” world is subject to validation by authorities (EASA).
Any datum delivered by an open-world device is considered uncertified. These devices may be laptops or tablets.
Below, an uncertified video source is considered to be any application of an open-world device delivering video data, i.e. data including images, image sequences and voice.
Such a prior-art device is in particular illustrated in
As things stand, it is the avionics platforms that process the video stream output from such tablets. The first thing such processing must do is remove “black bands” as best as possible. It is a question of a problem with the width/height ratio of the tablet image and of the display area available in the cockpit for content (portion of the screen or whole screen). The regions around the tablet image are filled with black in the video stream (which possesses its own 16:9 ratio as video standard).
There is a continuing need to improve human-machine interactions within the cockpit, to facilitate display of data useful to the pilot.
The present invention aims to meet this need at least in part.
More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for processing a data stream from an uncertified video source, said data stream being intended to be displayed at least partially on a display screen of a cockpit of an aircraft, said display screen having predetermined dimensions and a predetermined resolution, said processing method comprising:
Thus, the pilot is able to manually configure the window of interest so as to optimize display of a portion of the data stream. This window of interest corresponds to the video stream extracted from the open-world device and displayed on the avionics screen.
It is thus solely the avionics platform that crops and resizes the image depending on the window of interest, and that durably stores the information defining the selected window of interest.
Interaction is then possible, regardless of the selected window of interest. Furthermore, in the step in which a portion of the data stream corresponding to the selected window of interest is displayed, interaction with the tablet remains compliant regardless of the selected window of interest.
The user therefore calibrates the window of interest of the open-world device from the avionics display screen.
In one particular embodiment, the window of interest is selected directly by the operator via contact with the display screen.
In one particular embodiment, a contact with one of the edges of the screen and a movement of the operator's finger in continuous contact with the screen allow the limits of the window of interest to be defined.
In one particular embodiment, another contact with a corner of the window of interest and a movement of the operator's finger in continuous contact with the screen allow the dimensions of said window of interest to be adjusted.
In one particular embodiment, another contact inside the window of interest and a movement of the operator's finger in continuous contact with the screen allow the position of the window of interest to be moved.
In one particular embodiment, the window of interest is selected by the operator via at least one touch knob, allowing finer adjustment along a horizontal axis and adjustment along a vertical axis of a size of said window of interest.
This improves the precision of the selection, in particular when turbulence is encountered during selection.
In one particular embodiment, an acceleration law allows a selection speed of the window of interest to be diminished during rapid movements of the touch knob.
In one particular embodiment, the step of transferring interaction coordinates comprises transferring conversion parameters to the adapter.
In one particular embodiment, when a calibration mode is switched to, the entire data stream is displayed, the portion of the data stream corresponding to the selected window of interest being displayed with the entire data stream.
The whole of the video stream is displayed on the avionics screen. If a window of interest has been defined beforehand, this whole video stream is displayed on the avionics screen with the selected window of interest. This allows the selection window to be viewed with respect to the entire video stream available from the open-world device.
The present invention will be better understood on reading the detailed description of embodiments which are given by way of non-limiting examples and illustrated by the appended drawings, in which:
The invention is not limited to the described embodiments and variants, and other embodiments and variants will appear obvious to those skilled in the art.
The tablet 20 is a mass-market touch-screen tablet.
The adapter 21 is placed between the tablet 20 and the display screen 220. This adapter 21 is able to receive interaction coordinates Coord with a view to processing them and delivering modified interaction coordinates Coord′. This coordinate processing consists in applying a change of coordinate system to the HID coordinate system of the tablet, the interaction being carried out by a pilot directly on the display screen 220. Through such processing, the display screen 220 becomes a remote screen of the tablet 20, for example with a view to interaction with functions represented in the form of icons on this tablet.
The display screen 220 is placed in the cockpit 22 of the aircraft. In the embodiment of
It will be noted that, in an alternative embodiment, the display screen displays only the data stream from the uncertified source.
For example, the display screen 220 is in the 16:10 format in 1440x900.
A method for processing video data will now be described with reference to
In a first step E1, the data stream F is sent by the uncertified video source present on the tablet 20.
In a second step E2, the data of the data stream are adapted to the dimensions and resolution of the display screen 220. This second step E2 is carried out by a video adapter present in the avionics equipment integrated into the “display”. There is an intermediate step between the first step E1 and the second step E2, which is carried by a unit 210 present in the adapter 21. This unit 210 is thus configured to force the tablet 20 to output a video stream of a certain resolution, 1280×720p for example. The unit 210 also allows the HDMI video stream of the tablet 20 to be converted to an avionics format, such as the SMPTE avionics format or the ARINC 818 avionics format.
In a third step E3, the pilot interacts with the display screen in the cockpit. For example, the pilot presses on a point P shown in
The coordinates of the point P are transmitted to the adapter 21. The latter will then adapt them to the coordinate system of the tablet 20, adapted coordinates Coord′ of the point P then being delivered. On receiving these adapted coordinates, the tablet 20 will deliver data of the stream F in accordance with the interaction exerted by the pilot on the display screen. Information on the rectangle ABCD is transmitted to the adapter 21, this allowing it to compute the conversion of the coordinates received from the avionics to Coord′.
The method then passes to a calibration mode in which step E3 of transferring interaction coordinates is deactivated. In a step E4, the pilot selects a window of interest Win on the display screen 220. Such a window is in particular illustrated in
Thus, step E4, which comprises calibration of the window of interest, takes priority over step E3. When step E4 has finished, step E3 may resume the transfer of interaction coordinates.
This window of interest Win has a rectangular shape and its outline is defined by the points E, F, G, H. Thus, point E has the coordinates {tx, ty}. Point F has the coordinates {tx+tw, 0}. Point G has the coordinates {tx+tw, ty+th}. Point H has the coordinates {0, ty+th}. Information on the rectangle EFGH is transmitted to the adapter 21, this allowing it to compute the conversion of the coordinates received from the avionics to Coord′.
A cropping operation is then applied to the video stream depending on this window of interest Win. It is carried out in the unit integrated into the avionics equipment. In a step E5, the portion of the data stream corresponding to the selected window of interest Win is displayed on the display screen 220. The windowing information delivered to the adapter 21 is also updated to modify the conversion calculation of the coordinates Coord′ accordingly. This makes it possible to ensure interactions between the avionics screen and the tablet remain compliant, regardless of the selected region of interest, not only for touch interactions but also for cursor/CCD (mouse-type) interactions.
The region of interest Win may be delineated by the pilot in various ways.
Preferably, a contact with one of the edges of the display screen and a movement of the operator's finger in continuous contact with the display screen 220 allow the limits of the window of interest Win to be defined.
Preferably, another contact with a corner of the window of interest Win and a movement of the operator's finger in continuous contact with the display screen allow the size of said window of interest Win to be adjusted.
Preferably, another contact inside the window of interest Win and a movement of the operator's finger in continuous contact with the display screen 220 allow the position of the window of interest Win to be moved.
Preferably, an acceleration law allows a selection speed of the window of interest Win to be diminished during rapid movements of the touch knob 23.
The invention thus allows:
The invention is not limited to the described embodiments and variants.
Thus, one additional capability allows any ambiguity in the risk of masking information in the “useful” video stream to be removed by making it possible to quickly view the entire stream and the rendering of the active selection region. Specifically, when a calibration mode is switched to from step E3, the entire stream received is displayed. It is this property, which is quick access, that makes it possible to remove doubt. This capability helps to respond in part to a fear expressed by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) that content will be masked.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2212864 | Dec 2022 | FR | national |
