Method and device for managing information in an aircraft

• US 8,751,512 B2
• Filed: 09/10/2010
• Issued: 06/10/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Airbus Operations (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company EADS NV)
• Original Assignee: Airbus Operations SAS (Airbus SE)
• Inventors: Deleris, Yannick, Broquet, Alexandre, Pascal, Fabien
• Primary Examiner(s): Corrielus, Jean M
• Application Number:
  US12/879,775
• Publication Number:
  US 20110196881A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,369 Days
• Field of Search: 707/752, 707/754, 701/3, 701/14, 701/538, 701/4, 701/16, 701/18, 701/213, 701/26, 701/28, 701/29.2, 715/790, 715/771, 715/808, 715/810, 715/856
• US Class Current: 707/752
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 23/00 Combined instruments indicating more than one navigational value, e.g. for aircraft; Combined measuring devices for measuring two or more variables of movement, e.g. distance, speed or acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0021 located in the aircraft

Abstract

A method and a device for managing information in an aircraft, including at least one device for outputting information for the crew and a plurality of equipment items adapted to transmit information items capable of being outputted on the output device. After a plurality of information items from the plurality of equipment items has been acquired and a context has been determined according to a predetermined model, the plurality of information items is filtered according to at least one rule, the at least one rule being associated with the context for selection of at least one information item. At least one selected information item is then outputted on the output device.

Claims

1. A method for managing information in an aircraft, the aircraft including at least one output device configured to output information for a crew, and a plurality of equipment items configured to transmit information items capable of being outputted on the at least one output device, the method comprising:

acquiring a plurality of information items from the plurality of equipment items;

determining a context, the context corresponding to an instantiation of a predetermined hierarchical context model that has a tree structure;

filtering the plurality of information items based on at least one rule;

selecting at least one information item from the plurality of information items, the at least one rule being associated with the determined context and being applicable to all elements that depend on a node of the model to which the rule is applied, a level of the elements in the hierarchical model being lower than that of the node;

outputting on a display of the at least one output device the at least one selected information item based on the determined context; and

simultaneously with said outputting on the display, determining all of a plurality of available transitions between different views associated with said outputting on the display, based on the determined context, to provide guidance between the different views.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

arranging information items among a plurality of selected information items; and

outputting the information items arranged according to at least one guidance rule, the at least one guidance rule being related to the determined context.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising:

modifying at least one of said filtering the plurality of information items and said arranging the information items among a plurality of information items selected according to at least one predetermined guidance rule and according to the context determined according to at least one characteristic of the aircraft.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determined context is determined based on one or more of at least one characteristic of the aircraft, at least one state of at least one equipment item of the plurality of equipment items, at least one datum relating to an environment of the aircraft, and at least one datum relating to a user.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an indication representative of detection of at least one predetermined event, the at least one rule being associated with the indication.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

modifying a format of the at least one selected information item.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determined context is defined according to a situation in which the aircraft is in.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determined context is defined according to a user of the aircraft.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determined context is defined according to an environment of the aircraft.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the displayed views evolve with each of the transitions.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein said outputting the at least one selected information item based on the determined context on the display includes presenting the at least one selected information item based on a blank station methodology.

12. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether a predetermined state of the aircraft has changed;

continuing said outputting based on the determined transitions regarding the different views when, responsive to said determining the predetermined state, the predetermined state of the aircraft has not changed; and

repeating said acquiring, said determining, said filtering, said outputting, and said determining when, responsive to said determining the predetermined state, the predetermined state of the aircraft has changed.

13. The method according to claim 1,

wherein said acquiring and said determining are performed responsive to an unexpected event, and

wherein a first occurrence of said outputting causes the display to switch from a blank screen to display of only the at least one selected information item on the display, the at least one selected information item on the display being one or more parameters relating to anomalies caused by the unexpected event.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein said outputting on the display the at least one selected information item includes outputting on the display, at the same time, a plurality of output level display portions of different granularities, including a first level display portion, a second level display portion, and a third level display portion.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the first level display portion represents all of the information items relating to a view, the second level display portion represents a system level that characterizes information items relating to a particular system of the view of the first level display portion, and the third level display portion represents unitary information items.

17. A device configured to perform the method according to claim 1.

18. An aircraft including the device of claim 17.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable instructions which when executed by a processor perform a method for managing information in an aircraft, the aircraft including at least one output device configured to output information for a crew, and a plurality of equipment items configured to transmit information items capable of being outputted on the at least one output device, the method comprising:

acquiring a plurality of information items from the plurality of equipment items;

determining a context, the context corresponding to an instantiation of a predetermined hierarchical context model that has a tree structure;

filtering the plurality of information items based on at least one rule;

selecting at least one information item from the plurality of information items, the at least one rule being associated with the determined context and being applicable to all elements that depend on a node of the model to which the rule is applied, a level of the elements in the hierarchical model being lower than that of the node;

outputting on a display of the at least one output device the at least one selected information item based on the determined context; and

simultaneously with said outputting on the display, determining all of a plurality of available transitions between different views associated with said outputting on the display, based on the determined context, to provide guidance between the different views.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 16, wherein said outputting the at least one selected information item based on the determined context on the display includes presenting the at least one selected information item based on a blank station methodology, where a first occurrence of said outputting causes the display to switch from a blank screen to display of only the at least one selected information item on the display.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 16, further comprising:

determining whether a predetermined state of the aircraft has changed;

continuing said outputting based on the determined transitions regarding the different views when, responsive to said determining the predetermined state, the predetermined state of the aircraft has not changed; and

repeating said acquiring, said determining, said filtering, said outputting, and said determining when, responsive to said determining the predetermined state, the predetermined state of the aircraft has changed.