Cybernet Systems Corporation has been awarded a Phase I SBIR contract by the Department of the Navy titled “Sensory System to Transition Pilots From Aided to Unaided Vision During Flight to Mitigate Spatial Discordance.” This six month effort for the Naval Air Systems Command is to address their need for a mitigation of the disorientation that occurs when a pilot transitions from aided to unaided vision.  Primarily the pilot needs a robust indication of aircraft attitude during the post-transition period, but other information, such as proximity to other aircraft or the ground may be candidates as well.

Cybernet will explore a straightforward audio/visual multimodal approach to conveying situation awareness of the current attitude of the aircraft to the pilot.  This includes a flexible display based on addressable LEDs that is attached to the internal scaffolding of the cockpit, thus providing a virtual.  It also includes an audio cue that leverages differentiation between the left and right ear playback of a sound to indicate aircraft roll and an orthogonal change in timbre to convey pitch.

Cybernet will implement this dual-mode peripheral cueing (DMPC) system, which is a proof-of-concept for each of these two cueing modes, test and adjust them individually and then together to determine and maximize effectiveness.  Cybernet will also evaluate and minimize the capacity for these cues to distract or otherwise degrade the performance of the pilot.