Effect of "inside-out" and "outside-in" attitude displays on off-axis tracking in pilots and nonpilots.
BACKGROUND: Pilots employing helmet-mounted displays spend sustained periods of time looking off-axis, necessitating the inclusion of attitude symbology on the helmet to maintain spatial awareness. We examined how fundamentally different attitude references, a moving-horizon ("inside-out") or a moving-aircraft ("outside-in"), affected pilot and nonpilot attitude control when looking on- or off-axis. Both a rear-view and a side-view outside-in perspective were depicted to investigate the effect of control-display compatibility. METHODS: Subjects performed a compensatory pitch-roll tracking task either looking on-axis or 90 degrees off-axis using three symbologies: 1) a compressed pitch ladder with horizon line; 2) a 3-D aircraft representation viewed from the rear; and 3) a 3-D aircraft representation viewed from the side. Tracking error in roll and pitch, control bias, and subjective ratings were collected and analyzed. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in the tracking performance of U.S. Air Force pilots in pitch and roll using the inside-out or outside-in rear-view formats on- and off-axis, although they preferred the inside-out format. Nonpilots tracked significantly better using the outside-in rear-view format, which they also preferred. Both groups tracked poorly using the outside-in side-view format and control-display compatibility had no important effect. CONCLUSIONS: Pilots are equally adept using outside-in and inside-out displays. Given that an outside-in display may better reflect a person's inherent frame of reference for orientation (as evidenced by the nonpilots' superior performance with it), the results seem to indicate that pilots, through experience, have adapted to an inside-out frame of reference.