2003 IMTA Proceedings - International Military Testing Association

Description of OZ
---------------------------------------------------------
Fig. 1: The star field metaphor
---------------------------------------------------------
OZ is organized into two components, the star field metaphor and aircraft metaphor,
which encode aircraft location and capability respectively. The star field metaphor, Figure 1,
shows the aircraft’s attitude and location in the external world. The star field metaphor is a oneto-one
mapping of the external world onto a coordinate system that displays both translations and
rotations. The star field metaphor in Figure 1 shows horizontal angular displacements linearly
projected along the x-axis and vertical angular displacements tangentially projected along the yaxis.
Several star layers are within the star field. Each star layer is located at a specific altitude.
The forward edges of these altitude layers are 0.5 nautical miles in front of the aircraft and are
composed of dots placed at every 10° of heading. The surface plane of the layers is defined by
star ‘trails’ flowing back around the aircraft from every third dot of the altitude layer’s leading
edge . The flow of these star ‘trails’ shares a common expansion point, located at the center of
the horizon line. This array of star trails creates apparent altitude planes and heading streams.
The horizon line, relative to the star layers, shows the aircraft’s altitude. The center of the
horizon line corresponds to the aircraft’s centerline and location. For example, an aircraft
45 th Annual Conference of the International Military Testing Association
Pensacola, Florida, 3-6 November 2003
73