Ecological Advanced Support Interface Toolkit for Heads Up Attention to Improve Warfighter Knowledge (EASI-HAWK)

Spatial perception in the cockpit remains paramount for safe and effective flight. Unfortunately, transitioning from aided to unaided flight has profound effects on pilots’ accuracy of spatial perception, increasing the cost of effective attention switching and reorientation to key environmental information, particularly an issue with limited visual cues in degraded conditions. Improved displays are required to support accurate perception of ownship orientation and movement during precision maneuvers. To address these challenges, we will design, demonstrate, and evaluate an Ecological Advanced Support Interface Toolkit for Heads Up Attention to Improve Warfighter Knowledge (EASI-HAWK). EASI-HAWK will enable efficient transition between aided and unaided vision through natural visual and auditory cues that extend beyond the foveal visual system. These cues enable robust, direct perception and disambiguation of orientation and motion cues critical to maintaining aircraft awareness and effective control responses. Under the proposed Phase II effort, we will expand prior analyses to address a wider range of aircraft and aviation tasks. The results of this analysis will drive the expansion and refinement of ecological multimodal displays. Finally, we will expand the breadth and depth of display prototypes to support formal, high-fidelity evaluations to deeply explore the complexities of spatial orientation within flight.