The rise of augmented reality glasses and related technologies offers new possibilities for the human–machine interface design of future aircraft. Today, head-worn displays (HWDs) are mainly used by military pilots, for instance by helicopter crews for low-visibility operations close to ground and obstacles. Nevertheless, recent technological advances in this area allow the prediction that these systems could become available for more pilots in the future. This article presents a concept how state-of-the-art HWD symbology can be expanded to get even more out of the advantages of this technology. With so-called “virtual cockpit instruments” (VCIs), an HWD can show information, which is conventionally rendered on panel-mounted displays. These VCIs can be imagined as virtual display screens, which can be positioned freely around the pilot. Their major benefit is that they create many new options for the design of a flexible, situation-adaptive cockpit environment. This article introduces the general concept and presents several options how such an approach can be put into practice. Here, the concept is applied to helicopter operations in offshore windparks. We implemented a VCI-adapted obstacle awareness display and assessed a set of positioning variants for the new VCI. Two simulator studies—with 11 and 7 participants—provide interesting insights on the realization of this concept. In addition to high subjective ratings, the VCI significantly increased the pilot’s head-up, eyes-out time—an important measure for challenging maneuvers close to obstacles. Overall, this article illustrates a promising concept for the human–machine interface design of future cockpits and discusses its potentials and limitations.

中文翻译：

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虚拟座舱仪器—头戴式显示器如何增强直升机飞行员的障碍意识

增强现实眼镜和相关技术的兴起为未来飞机的人机界面设计提供了新的可能性。如今，头戴式显示器（HWD）主要用于军事飞行员，例如直升机机组人员在靠近地面和障碍物的情况下进行低可见性操作。尽管如此，最近在该领域的技术进步使人们可以预测这些系统将来可能会供更多的飞行员使用。本文提出了一个概念，如何扩展最先进的HWD符号体系，以进一步利用该技术的优势。借助所谓的“虚拟座舱仪表”（VCI），HWD可以显示信息，该信息通常在面板安装的显示器上呈现。这些VCI可以想象成虚拟显示屏，可以在飞行员周围自由放置。它们的主要好处是，它们为设计灵活的，适应情况的驾驶舱环境提供了许多新的选择。本文介绍了一般概念，并介绍了如何将这种方法付诸实践的几种选择。在这里，该概念适用于海上风场中的直升机操作。我们实施了适合VCI的障碍物感知显示器，并评估了新VCI的一组定位变量。两项仿真器研究（有11名参与者和7名参与者）为实现这一概念提供了有趣的见解。除了较高的主观评分外，VCI还大大增加了飞行员的抬头，抬头的时间，这是挑战靠近障碍物的机动性的重要措施。全面的，