De-Cluttering Labels on Complex Maps

Ensuring situational awareness is key to successful mission critical displays, but is increasingly challenged with the amount of data that can now be visualized. Increasingly detailed map formats, symbology with multiple modifiers, requirements to display more dynamic tracks and plots with textual information – all provide useful information, but are overwhelming to an operator if not strategically managed.

TerraLens provides capabilities allowing for the development of intelligent filtering strategies, making data available to an operator when they need it but allowing them to focus on the overall situational picture without information overload.

Range based filtering can be used to reduce the complexity of the display, showing increasingly detailed information as the view’s range is focused to a smaller region. Specific map features, or entire map sets, can be turned on or off as the view is zoomed showing the appropriate amount of information depending on the operator’s current task or focus. Track displays can show complex MIL-STD-2525 symbols with modifiers, history points, velocity vectors and label blocks required to monitor a small operational area, and switch to simplistic track symbols only when the view is zoomed out to show a large area with thousands of tracks. Different operator use case, different visualizations.

Data blocks for dynamic objects provide a quick summary of key information, but can become useless if obscured by other labels. Resolving these overlaps however can result in poor runtime performance, or labels moved so far away from the associated track that situational awareness is actually reduced.

TerraLens provides applications with the control they need to ensure operators have the information they need, and where they expect to find it. Labels can be constrained by distance and angle, or fixed offsets, and can be adjusted continuously or only as needed to limit distracting label movement.