Visualization and Interaction on Flight Trajectory in a 3d Stereoscopic Environment

The present study is embedded within the Virtual Sky project, currently undergoing at the EUROCONTROL R&D Center, which aims to investigate the potentiality of a 3D stereoscopic environment for ATC. This paper describes the design of visualizations and interactions within a multidisciplinary framework for the empirical analysis of the applicability of three-dimensional (3D) stereoscopic visualization in Air Traffic Control (ATC). This framework takes into consideration three major components: the design of visualization interfaces, the design of interactivities, and the associated human factors. The research framework [0] of this project comprises three inter-related components: 3D Visualization, 3D Human-Machine Interaction and Human Factors (as in Figure 1). Flight trajectory is selected as the premilinary subject for analysing. This paper analyzes different ways to model waypoints, flight trajectories and diverse techniques to select, to position waypoints in a 3D stereoscopic environment. We discuss the using the polynomial curve for representing 3D flight trajectory. Basing on the analysis of interaction with waypoint, we also propose two new metaphors for selccting objects, various selcction and positioning techniques in 3D environment. An experimental approach is also considered to evaluate the performance of different models of flight trajectory and interaction techniques in the end of this paper. Figure 1. The Research Framework This paper discusses two first research components: 3D Visualization and 3D HumanMachine Interaction. By taking flight trajectory as subject to perform analysis, we expect that the design principles for the inter-relationship between ATC object modeling and interactions on these objects could be clarified. As the matter of fact, the 3D Visualization research component tries to use different ways to model waypoints and flight trajectories while the 3D Interaction research component explores all techniques for selection and positioning of waypoints with regard to the representation of waypoints and trajectories in a 3D stereoscopic environment.