Exploring a Visual Flow Display to Enhance Spatial Orientation during Flight

The problem of spatial disorientation during flight of aircraft is briefly described, as are definitions of the phenomenon. Traditional countermeasure efforts that are often directed towards changes in the central visual field are reconsidered in favour of presentation of information in the peripheral visual field. It is proposed to use optic flow to support spatial orientation, as well as to omit such information from the central visual field. An experiment was conducted, and results showed that forward visual flow gave very important spatial information. The flow could be cropped to a certain degree in the periphery (horizontally), as well as parts of the central presentation could be omitted without decreasing effects in the experiment. Implications relevant to possible implementations in aircraft are discussed