System for communicating avionics information through portable electronic devices

• US 10,268,334 B2
• Filed: 02/20/2015
• Issued: 04/23/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Astronautics Corporation of America
• Original Assignee: Astronautics Corporation of America
• Inventors: Owczarski, David, Shuler, Jason
• Primary Examiner(s): Safaipour, Bobbak
• Application Number:
  US15/116,548
• Publication Number:
  US 20160349933A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,523 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 43/00 Arrangements or adaptations of instruments arrangements of cameras B64D47/08; aeronautical measuring instruments per se G01C
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0796 Safety measures, i.e. ensuring safe condition in the event of error, e.g. for controlling element
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/80 2D [Two Dimensional] animation, e.g. using sprites
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/123 received data contents, e.g. message integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70

Abstract

A method and apparatus for using portable electronic devices such as commercial off-the-shelf cell phones and tablets for the communication of critical aviation data provides a protocol which minimizes processing by the portable electronic device other than the confirmation of a receipt of uncorrupted data. Failure of timely, accurate communication is detected at a certified avionics data server and communicated to the portable electronic device in the form of a fail-image. The communicated images may be composited with animated frames to provide a human recognizable indication of data integrity.

Claims

1. An avionics data server comprising:

a first interface communicating with one or more avionics buses conveying avionics data related to a safe operation of an aircraft; and

a second interface communicating with at least one portable electronic device having an electronic display;

wherein the avionics data server includes a processor executing a program stored in non-transient medium to;

(1) generate an image frame at the avionics data server from the avionics data, the image frame displayable to provide information related to the safe operation of the aircraft;

(2) determine a signature at the avionics data server, the signature providing a representation of data of the image frame;

(3) forward the image frame from the avionics data server via the second interface to the portable electronic device;

(4) receive a confirming signature from the portable electronic device to the avionics data server, the confirming signature providing a representation of the image frame as received by the portable electronic device; and

(5) compare the confirming signature to the signature at the avionics data server and, when they do not match, forwarding a fail-image frame to the portable electronic device, the fail-image frame displayable to provide information indicating an unreliability of displayed information on the portable electronic device.

2. The avionics data server system of claim 1 further including a step of attaching a frame sequence number to the image frame linked to the signature and wherein the step of returning a confirming signature links the confirming signature to a frame sequence number of a received image frame and wherein the step of comparing the confirming signature to the signature compares a confirming signature and signature having matching frame sequence numbers.

3. The avionics data server system of claim 1 further including a step of setting a timer at step (3) and determining that the confirming signature and signature do not match at the expiration of a predetermined time after setting of the timer if a matching signature and confirming signature is not established.

4. The avionics data server system of claim 1 further including a step of authenticating the portable electronic device for communication of image frames from the avionics data server to the portable electronic device.

5. The avionics data server system of claim 1 further wherein the signature is a cyclic redundancy code applied over the data of the image frame.

6. The avionics data server system of claim 1 wherein the avionics data server includes a hardware signature generator generating the signature of step (2) independently from the processor of the avionics data server.

7. The avionics data server system of claim 6 wherein the hardware signature generator is a field programmable gate array.

8. The avionics data server system of claim 1 wherein step (3) is performed in response to a request for an image frame communicated from the portable electronic device to the avionics data server for each image frame.

9. The avionics data server system of claim 1 wherein the image frame displays as a static image.

10. The avionics data server system of claim 9 wherein the image frame provides a set of pixel values for pixels ranging over two dimensions.

11. The avionics data server system of claim 1 wherein steps (1)-(5) are repeated at a rate of at least 10 times per second.

12. An avionics data server comprising:

a first interface communicating with one of more avionics buses conveying avionics data related to a safe operation of an aircraft; and

a second interface communicating with at least one portable electronic device having an electronic display;

wherein the avionics data server includes a processor executing a program stored in non-transient medium to;

(1) generate an image frame at the avionics data server from the avionics data, the image frame displayable to provide information related to a safe operation of the aircraft;

(2) determine a signature at the avionics data server, the signature providing a representation of data of the image frame;

(3) forward the image frame from the avionics data server via the second interface to the portable electronic device;

(4) receive a confirming signature from the portable electronic device to the avionics data server, the confirming signature providing a representation of the image frame as received by the portable electronic device; and

(5) compare the confirming signature to the signature at the avionics data server and, when they do not match, forwarding a fail-image frame to the portable electronic device, the fail-image frame displayable to provide information indicating an unreliability of displayed information on the portable electronic device;

further including a step of repeating at least step (1) to forward sequential image frames and compositing each image frame before step (3) with an active-signal animation frame of an animation set so that a different active-signal animation frame is composited with sequentially forwarded image frames and so that successive active-signal animation frames when displayed with the sequential image frames provide a perception of continuous predictable motion in an image generated by the active-signal animation frames indicating receipt of the sequentially forwarded image frames to a human observer.

13. The avionics data server system of claim 12 wherein the animation set provides active-signal animation frames of a rotating object.

14. An avionics server system comprising:

an avionics data server having;

a first interface communicating with an avionics bus conveying avionics data related to a safe operation of an aircraft; and

a second interface communicating with at least one portable electronic device having an electronic display;

wherein the avionics data server includes a processor executing a program stored in non-transient media to;

(1) generate an image frame at the avionics data server from the avionics data, the image frame displayable to provide information related to the safe operation of the aircraft;

(2) determine a signature at the avionics data server, the signature providing a representation of data of the image frame;

(3) forward the image frame from the avionics data server via the second interface to the portable electronic device;

(4) receive a confirming signature from the portable electronic device to the avionics data server, the confirming signature providing a representation of the image frame as received by the portable electronic device; and

(5) compare the confirming signature to the signature at the avionics data server and, when they do not match, forwarding a fail-image frame to the portable electronic device, the fail-image frame displayable to provide information indicating an unreliability of displayed information on the portable electronic device;

a portable electronic device providing an electronic display and a processor for executing a program stored in non-transient medium to;

(1) request an image frame via the wireless access point from the avionics data server;

(2) generate a confirming signature based on a received image frame from the request; and

(3) display the requested image frame when received on the electronic display.

15. The avionics server system of claim 14 wherein the second interface is a wireless access point.

16. A method of communicating avionics data to a portable electronic device using an avionics data server having:

a first interface communicating with an avionics bus conveying avionics data related to a safe operation of an aircraft; and

a second interface communicating with a at least one portable electronic device having an electronic display;

wherein the method executes a program stored in non-transient media to;

(1) generate an image frame at the avionics data server from the avionics data, the image frame displayable to provide information related to the safe operation of the aircraft;

(2) determine a signature at the avionics data server, the signature providing a representation of data of the image frame;

(3) forward the image frame from the avionics data server via second interface to the portable electronic device;

(4) receive a confirming signature from the portable electronic device to the avionics data server, the confirming signature providing a representation of the image frame as received by the portable electronic device; and

(5) compare the confirming signature to the signature at the avionics data server and, when they do not match, forwarding a fail-image frame to the portable electronic device, the fail image frame displayable to provide information indicating an unreliability of displayed information on the portable electronic device.