610 



DISPLAY SYSTEM DESIGN PROBLEMS 



Radar Range 



Low Speed 



- Moderate Speed 



— High Speed 



Altitude 

 L - Low 

 M - iVledium 

 H - High 



Fig. 12-3 Hypothetical Tactical Situation Display. 



as shown in Fig. 12-3, the position, heading, and speed of targets in a given 

 sector might be displayed as arrows of variable length. Friendly aircraft 

 might be designated in the same manner by arrows of a different color. 

 Additional coding of the symbols might be employed to indicate altitude — 

 in this case the symbols H, M, and L are used to designate high, medium, 

 and low altitudes. In theory, at least, such representations can provide 

 the human operator with information necessary to make the optimum 

 analysis of a given tactical situation. However, the generation of such 

 displays poses difficult mechanization problems. Even more important is 

 the problem of matching the display coding to operator interpretation 

 characteristics. An infinite variety of display codes — all designed to 

 accomplish the same end result as Fig. 12-3 — -can be devised. For such 

 applications, it is particularly important to define — in advance — what 

 the operator is expected to do with the tactical display and monitoring 

 information and to compare these use requirements with the "bandwidth" 

 and recognition capabilities of a human being (see Paragraph 12-7). Then, 



