Constraints on Electronic Map Presentation and Terrain Depiction for Air-Ground Targeting: The Three Map Problem

摘要

Seventeen pilots performed a flight simulation in which they flew toward a designated ground target, navigating across three legs and finally capturing the target. While they consulted the forward view depicted on an Evans and Sutherland display, two different means of presenting the terrain as an electronic map on an IRIS display were contrasted. In the 'tiled' method, the terrain was depicted by three 3D exo-centric maps, covering the distance between start and the final target, like three overlapping tiles. In the 'global-local' method, the depiction showed three maps, progressively increased in detail (more local coverage, less global coverage), by presenting only the remaining course between the initiation and final target destination. Pilots flew through (and located the target within) either sparse or dense terrain, and the target was defined by either cultural or natural features. The results revealed general equivalence between the two map presentation types, but a slight difference in favor of the global-local coverage, despite the fact that pilots preferred the tiled coverage because of its consistency of scale. Target search was superior in sparse terrain, whereas lateral tracking error, representing navigational performance, was superior in denser terrain, because of the greater richness of information upon which to base map vs. forward-view comparisons. There were no pronounced differences between cultural and natural features.