IP Library › Granted Patent US 11,748,923
Granted Patent B2
US 11,748,923 · App. 17/525,685 · Granted Sep 5, 2023

System and method for providing more readable font characters in size adjusting avionics charts

Inventor: Jeff M. Henry (Cedar Rapids, IA)
Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc.
G06T11/203G06T3/40G06T11/206
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 11,748,923
App. No.
17/525,685
Granted
Sep 5, 2023
Kind
B2
Abstract

A system and method for flight chart font character scaling is disclosed. A host computing device is configured to: detect a font character size of a font character in a flight chart file, associate a threshold zoom level with the font character based on the respective font character size, and convert the flight chart file to aircraft display hardware directives. An aircraft display is configured to display a flight chart using the aircraft display hardware directives. An aircraft computing device is configured to detect a current zoom level of the aircraft display, compare the current zoom level to the threshold zoom level, set a drawing mode of a font character reference as a stroked mode or a filled mode, and present a referenced character as a filled character or a stroked character based on the drawing mode.

Claims (36)

1. A system for flight chart font character scaling, comprising:

a host computing device including one or more processors configured to execute program instructions causing the one or more processors to:

detect a respective font character size of one or more font characters in a flight chart file;

associate a respective threshold zoom level with each of the font character(s) based on the respective font character size;

replace the font character(s) with one or more font character references, wherein each of the font character reference(s) is associated with the respective threshold zoom level; and

convert the flight chart file, including the font character reference(s) and the respective threshold zoom level associated with each of the font character reference(s), to a flight chart defined in aircraft display hardware directives;

an aircraft display configured to display the flight chart using the aircraft display hardware directives; and

an aircraft computing device including one or more processors configured to execute program instructions causing the one or more processors to:

detect a current zoom level of the aircraft display;

responsive to the current zoom level being greater than the respective threshold zoom level of one of the font character reference(s), set a drawing mode of the one of the font character reference(s) as a filled character mode, or, responsive to the current zoom level being less than the respective threshold zoom level of the one of the font character reference(s), set the drawing mode of the one of the font character reference(s) as a stroked character mode; and

responsive to the drawing mode being set as the filled character mode, present a referenced character of the one of the font character reference(s) as a filled character on the aircraft display, or, responsive to the drawing mode being set as the stroked character mode, present the referenced character of the one of the font character reference(s) as a stroked character on the aircraft display.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the respective threshold zoom level is 1.25 times a baseline zoom level.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the respective threshold zoom level is 1.5 times a baseline zoom level.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the respective threshold zoom level is 2.0 times a baseline zoom level.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the detected respective font character size is of from a 1-point font size to a 240-point font size.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the filled character is presented on the flight display by drawing at least one of a plurality of filled triangles or a plurality of lines.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the flight chart file is a portable document format (PDF) flight chart file.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the flight chart file is a scalable vector graphics (SVG) flight chart file defined in extensible mark-up language (XML).

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the stroked character is presented on the flight display by drawing a plurality of line segments.

10. A method for flight chart font character scaling, comprising:

using a host computing device,

detecting a respective font character size of one or more font characters in a flight chart file,

associating a respective threshold zoom level with each of the font character(s) based on the respective font character size,

replacing the font character(s) with one or more font character references, wherein each of the font character reference(s) is associated with the respective threshold zoom level,

converting the flight chart file, including the font character reference(s) and the respective threshold zoom level associated with each of the font character reference(s), to a flight chart defined in aircraft display hardware directives, wherein an aircraft display is configured to display the flight chart using the aircraft display hardware directives,

using an aircraft computing device,

detecting a current zoom level of the aircraft display,

responsive to the current zoom level being greater than the respective threshold zoom level of one of the font character reference(s), setting a drawing mode of the one of the font character reference(s) as a filled character mode, or, responsive to the current zoom level being less than the respective threshold zoom level of the one of the font character reference(s), setting the drawing mode of the one of the font character reference(s) as a stroked character mode; and

responsive to the drawing mode being set as the filled character mode, presenting a referenced character of the one of the font character reference(s) as a filled character on the aircraft display, or, responsive to the drawing mode being set as the stroked character mode, presenting the referenced character of the one of the font character reference(s) as a stroked character on the aircraft display.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the respective threshold zoom level is 1.25 times a baseline zoom level.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the respective threshold zoom level is 1.5 times a baseline zoom level.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the respective threshold zoom level is 2.0 times a baseline zoom level.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein the filled character is presented on the flight display by drawing at least one of a plurality of filled triangles or a plurality of lines.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the flight chart file is a portable document format (PDF) flight chart file.

16. The method of claim 10 , wherein the flight chart file is a scalable vector graphics (SVG) flight chart file defined in extensible mark-up language (XML).

17. The method of claim 10 , wherein the stroked character is presented on the flight display by drawing a plurality of line segments.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Nov 12, 2021
From: HENRY, JEFF M.
To: ROCKWELL COLLINS, INC.
Reel/Frame 058103/0167 →
Continuity (2)
Provisional Application 63278576 · Nov 12, 2021
Related Publication 20230154074A1 · May 18, 2023