Towards Determination of Visual Requirements for Augmented Reality Displays and Virtual Environments for the Airport Tower

The visual requirements for augmented reality or virtual environments displays that might be used in real or virtual towers are reviewed with respect to similar displays already used in aircraft. As an example of the type of human performance studies needed to determine the useful specifications of augmented reality displays, an optical see-through display was used in an ATC Tower simulation. Three different binocular fields of view (14°, 28°, and 47°) were examined to determine their effect on subjects’ ability to detect aircraft maneuvering and landing. The results suggest that binocular fields of view much greater than 47° are unlikely to dramatically improve search performance and that partial binocular overlap is a feasible display technique for augmented reality Tower applications.