1.

HEAD UP DISPLAY
Basic Principles

1. The pilot views the outside world through the HUD combiner glass (and windscreen).
2. The combiner glass is effectively a ‘see through’ mirror with a high optical transmission
efficiency so that there is little loss of visibility looking through the combiner and windscreen.
3. It is called a combiner as it optically combines the collimated display symbology with the outside
world scene viewed through it.
4. the display symbology generated from the aircraft sensors and systems (such as the INS and air
data system) is displayed on the surface of a cathode ray tube (CRT).
5. The display images are then relayed through a relay lens system which magnifies the
display and corrects for some of the optical errors which are otherwise present in the
system.
6. The relayed display images are then reflected through an angle of near 90◦ by the fold mirror and
thence to the collimating lens which collimates the display images which are then reflected from
the combiner glass into the pilot’s forward field of view.

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 7. The virtual images of the display symbology appear to the pilot to be at infinity and overlay the
distant world scene, as they are collimated.
8. The function of the fold mirror is to enable a compact optical configuration to be achieved so that
the HUD occupies the minimum possible space in the cockpit.
9. The fundamental importance of collimation to any HUD system merits further explanation for the
benefit of readers whose knowledge of optics needs refreshing.
The HUDS are now being installed in civil aircraft for reason such as:

1. Increased safety in landing the aircraft in condition of sever wind shear using the HUD to
provide a flight path director display which allows for the effects of wind shear.The flight
path is computed from the flight path vector derived INS ,airspeed and height from the air
data system and the aircrafts aerodynamic characteristics.
2. To display automatic landing guidance to enable the pilot to land the aircraft safety in
condition of very low visibility due to fog ,as a back up and monitor for the automatic
landing system

3. Enhanced vision using a raster mode HUD to project a FLIR video picture of the outside
world from a FLIR sensor installed in the aircraft or a synthetic picture of the outside world
generator from a forward looking millimetric radar sensor in the aircraft. This enhanced
vision systems are still under development but will enable the pilot to land the aircraft in
conditions of very low or zero visibility

2. CONTROL AND DATA ENTRY SYSTEMS

A. Direct Voice Input
1. Direct voice input (DVI) control is a system which enables the pilot to enter data
and control the operation of the aircraft’s avionic systems by means of speech.
2. The spoken commands and data are recognised by a speech recognition system which
3. compares the spoken utterances with the stored speech templates of the system
vocabulary.
4. The recognised commands, or data, are then transmitted to the aircraft sub-systems by means of
the interconnecting data bus (e.g. MIL STD 1553B data bus).
As examples:

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 (a) To change a communication channel frequency, the pilot says – ‘radio’ (followed by)
‘select frequency three four five decimal six’.
(b) To enter navigation data, the pilot says – ‘navigation’ (followed by) ‘enters waypoint
latitude fifty one degrees thirty one minutes eleven seconds North. longitude zero degrees
forty five minutes seventeen seconds West’.
5. Feedback that the DVI system has recognised the pilot’s command correctly is provided visually
on the HUD and HMD (if installed), and aurally by means of a speech synthesizer system.
6. The pilot then confirms the correctly recognised command by saying ‘enter’ and the action is
initiated.
7. The pilot can thus stay head up and does not have to divert attention from the outside world in
order to operate touch panels, switches, push buttons, keyboards etc.
8. DVI can thus reduce the pilot’s work load in high work load situations.

9. It should be noted that the vocabulary required is not extensive and pilots (and crew) make good
DVI subjects.
10. This is because they are trained to speak clearly and concisely in a strongly structured way when
giving commands and information over the communication channels to fellow crew members,
other aircraft and ground control.
11. The main characteristics and requirements for an airborne DVI system are briefly
summarised below:
 Fully connected speech. The speech recognition system must be able to recognise
normal fully connected speech with no pauses required between words.
(Systems which require a pause between each word are known as ‘isolated word
recognisers’.)
 Must be able to operate in the cockpit noise environment.
 The background noise level can be very high in a fast jet combat aircraft.
 Vocabulary size. The required vocabulary is around 200 to 300 words.
 Speech template duration. The maximum speech template duration is around 5
seconds.
 Vocabulary duration. The maximum duration of the total vocabulary is around
160 seconds.
 Syntax nodes. The maximum number of syntax nodes required is about 300.
An example of a typical ‘syntax tree’ is shown below:

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 Duration of utterance. There must be no restrictions on the maximum duration
of an input utterance.
 Recognition response time. This must be in real time.

B. Tactile Control Panels or Touch Screen

 A typical tactile control panel uses a matrix array of infrared beams across the surface of the
display which displays the various function keys.
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 Touching a specific function key on the display surface interrupts the x and y infrared beams
which intersect over the displayed key function and hence signals the operation of that particular
key function.
 All input controls used by a flight deck crew, other than verbal and eye and head pointing, can be
classified as tactile
 The touch screen CRT is example of combining an electronically generated display with the input
control
 There are four principle touch technologies .These are 1.scanning infrared (IR) 2.resistive screen
overlay 3.surface acoustic wave.
 Surface acoustic wave, however, has not been developed to the same extent the other techniques.
 Each of these has one thing in common: They form part of the CRT screen.
 One “touch” techniques uses the interruption of an infra-red field across the front of the display
screen.
 When the pilot’s finger penetrates the field, a “touch” is detected.
 With the resistive overlay type of CRT there is a glass substrate over the display screen. By
touching the surface, which alters the resistance, the system is activated.
 A glass substrate is also used with the capacitance overlay, when the user touches the screen the
change in capacitance is measured and the location of the touch is defined.
 With another technique surface acoustic waves are transmitted through a glass substrate .When
the pilot touches the substrate to activate the system the changes in energy is measured and
location of the touch is detected.

C. Eye Trackers
1. Eye tracking systems are being fairly widely used and evaluated in ground simulators for such
future applications as improved target designation accuracy by enabling a more accurate
measurement of the pilot’s gaze angle to be made in conjunction with a head tracker system.
2. Data entry in conjunction with a helmet mounted display can also be achieved.
3. A keyboard can be displayed on the HMD and data can be entered by looking at the appropriate
data symbol (e.g. Function switch and the digits 0 to 9, etc.) and then operating a simple push
button.
4. The pilot’s gaze angle is measured by the eye tracker and displayed by a simple cross on the
HMD.
5. The pilot can thus see his LOS is on the chosen symbol. A fast and accurate data entry system
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 can be achieved by this means.
6. Prototype helmet mounted eye trackers have been built which exploit the principle of
cornealreflection. These have demonstrated 0.5◦ accuracy at a 50 Hz iteration rate

4. HOTAS

1. HOTAS, an abbreviation for Hands On Throttle-And-Stick, is the name given to the

concept of placing buttons and switches on the throttle stick and flight control stick in an
aircraft's cockpit, allowing the pilot to access vital cockpit functions and fly the aircraft
without having to remove his hands from the throttle and flight controls.
2. Having all switches on the stick and throttle allows the pilot to keep his "hands on
throttle-and-stick", thus allowing him to remain focused on more important duties than
looking for controls in the cockpit.
3. The goal is to improve the pilot's situational awareness, his ability to manipulate switch
and button controls in turbulence, under stress, or during high G-force maneuvers, to
improve his reaction time, to minimize instances when he must remove his hands from
one or the other of the aircraft's controls to use another aircraft system, and total time
spent doing so.
4. The concept has also been applied to the steering wheels of modern open-wheel racecars,
like those used in Formula One and the Indy Racing League.
5. HOTAS has been adapted for game controllers used for flight simulators (most such
controllers are based on the F-16 Fighting Falcon's) and in cars equipped with radio
controls on the steering wheel.
6. In the modern military aircraft cockpit the HOTAS concept is sometimes enhanced by the
use of Direct Voice Input to produce the so-called "V-TAS" concept, and augmented with
helmet mounted display systems such as the "Schlem" used in the MiG-29 and Su-27,
which allow the pilot to control various systems using his line of sight, and to guide
missiles by simply looking at the target.

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 5. Electro Luminescent Display

Principle:

The excitation of emission from a phosphor by electron flowing within the phosphor, rather than
the impingement of high energy electrons used in a CRT.

Working Principles:

1. The electrodes are arranged in Row and Colum directions.

2. The image is produced by exiting emission within the phosphor layer by causing a current to flow
within the phosphor when voltage is applied to the electrodes on either side of the cell.

3. The presence of layers of insulator on both surfaces of the phosphor seems paradoxical, as these
prevent current flow.

4. However, without insulation, the self exaggeration effects of current flow and temperature rise in
the semi-conducting phosphor can cause the phosphor to melt, so the device would have a very
short life.

5. The insulating layers transform each cell into a capacitor with a semiconducting core.

6. The application of a voltage charges the capacitor, which produces a displacement current within
the phosphor as the charge carriers migrate rapidly to the opposite surfaces of the material, and
the cell produces a pulse of light during the displacement current flow.

7. It is therefore necessary to alternate the polarity of the voltage to swing the charge carriers from
one surface to other surface; otherwise repeated application of the same polarity would merely
produce a small current to replenish any leakage charge.

8. The brightness of a cell depends upon the pulse rate, and therefore the alternating excitation
frequency as well as the magnitude of the voltage swing. Typically a voltage in the order of 50v
and a frequency of 60 Hz gives a luminance of about 50cdm-2 .

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Advantage

1. To provide sufficient brightness

2. Little reflected glare

3. Image can be viewed as daylight

7. .

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 6. PLASMA DISPLAY

1. Neon Gas is contained between two flat glass plates.

2. The rear glass is coated with a conductive material, usually by a metal.
3. deposited on the inside of the front glass are metal segments
4. The metal segments are very thin and transparent to light.
5. If a sufficiently high voltage is applied between the rear conductive coating and a metal
segment, the neon gas is ionizes.
6. Orange light is emitted when neon atoms return to their zero energy state.
7. By selectively energizing segments, numeric digits are generated.
8. the color of ionized gas includes several spectral lines but appear to the eye as orange
9. a filter can extract other colors, but the intensity is less

Advantages
1. A plasma display can be sunlight readable.
2. Energy efficiency is reasonable

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 3. These displays have been used in avionics especially before LEDs became available in
bright yellow and orange.
4. LEDs are purchased as standard parts and arranged as needed for the design.

Disadvantages:
1. There are standard plasma displays but they tend to be larger and suited for miniature
avionics displays.
2. Plasma displays no longer common in new designs.
3. high voltage required
4. These displays are usually custom assemblies.
5. When energy consumption is considered, efficiency is not better than LED
6. These displays are dimmed for night time use

7. Light Emitting Diode (LEDs)

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Light Emitting Diodes(LED):

1. An LED is a solid state device comprising a forward biased pn junction transistor

from a slice or chip of gallium arsenide phosphide (GaAsP) moulded into a
transparent covering
2. When current flows through the chip it emits light which is in direct proportion to the
current flows
3. Light emission in different colors of the spectrum can, where required be obtained by
varying the proportions of the elements comprising the chip, and also by a technique
of ‘doping’ with other elements. Eg:Nitrogen
4. In a typical seven-segment display format it is usual to employ one LED per segment
and mount it with in a reflective cavity with a plastic overlay and a diffuser plate
5. The segments are formed has a sealed integrated circuit pack, the connecting pins of
which are soldered to an associated printed circuit board

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 6. Depending on a application and the number of digits comprising the appropriate
quantitative display, independent digit packs may be used, or combined in a multiple
digit display unit.
7. LEDs can also be used in a dot-matrix configuration, and a example of this as applied
to a type of engine speed indicator.
8. Each dot making up the decimal numbers is an individual LED and they are arranged
in a 9*5matrix.
9. The counter is of unique design in that its signal device circuit causes an apparent
“rolling” of the digits which simulates the action of a mechanical drum type counter
as it responds to changes in engine speed.
10. It is tiny semiconductor chip which can form a seven-segment arrangement or, in
more complex arrays such as 5*7,generate acceptable looking alphabetical
characters.
11. It is much less expensive, more efficient
12. Also when reduced in intensity or dimmed ,color does not shift.
13. The color of the LED was its biggest problem.
14. Early LEDs were only red. This color is reserved for danger warnings, and would be
lost in the sea of other red indicator in the cockpit.
15. A different colors of the LEDs available. First was amser then yellow ,green, blue.
16. Early amser and yellow LEDs were bright and sunlight readable.

Advantages:

1.) It is much less expensive.

2.) More efficient.

Disadvantages:

1.) The color of the LED was its biggest problem.

2.) Introduce energy efficiency when large arrays LEDs are used for graphics display.
3.) During manufacture ,when thousands of LEDs are attached to substrate, there is a possibility
of one failure
4.) LED arrays are mainly used in small arrays.

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 8. Liquid-Crystal Display (LCD)

1. The basic structure of an LCD consists of two glass plates, coated on their inner surfaces with a
thin transparent conductor such as indium oxide.
2. The conductor on the front plate is etched into a standard display format of seven bars or
segments each segment forming an electrode.
3. Each bar is electrically separate and is selected by a logical driver circuit which causes the bars to
illuminate in patterns forming the digit to be displayed (diagram (b)).

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4. A mirror image of the digits with its associated electrical contact is also etched into the oxide
layer of the back glass plate, but this is not segmented since it constitutes a common return for all
segments.
5. The space between the plates is filled with a liquid-crystal material, referred to as a nematic
material (from the Greek word nemator meaning 'thread') by virtue of its thread-like molecules
being oriented with their long axes parallel.
6. The complete assembly thus constitutes a special form of capacitor.
7. When low-voltage current is applied to the segments, the molecular order of the liquid-crystal
material is disturbed and this changes its optical appearance from transparent to reflective.
8. The magnitude of the optical change (called contrast ratio) is basically a measure of the light
reflected from, or transmitted through, the segment area, to the light reflected from the
background area; a typical ratio is 15 : 1.
9. The current applied to the segments is of the alternating type to avoid undesirable electrolytic
effects.
10. Energizing of the segments is accomplished by the simultaneous application of a symmetrical
out-of-phase signal to the front and back electrodes of a segment, and thereby producing a net
voltage difference.
11. When two in-phase signals are applied the display segments spontaneously relax to the de-
energized state.
12. Depending on the application of an LCD, colour effects can be achieved by the proper placement
of colour films on the front surface of the display, between the back surface and artificial light
source, or by colouring the reflective surfaces.

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CRT (CATHODE RAY TUBE):

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MFK (MULTI FUNCTION KEYBOARDS)

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