The VV team have paid a visit to Canada to demonstrate training technologies there.
Visit to China
This week, VV has visited eastern China to observe local training techniques and to facilitate the evaluation of VV Approach and ATCX.
English Phraseology Trainer
The VV English Phraseology Trainer is in development for deployment to trainees in Asia. It includes facility for instruction and practice in standard phrasing in the Area, Approach and Tower environments. Use is made of standard pictographs with dynamic content accompanied by speech recognition and speech synthesis technologies.
The product is readily customised with local phrasing where required.
Air Traffic Control Lessons in Chinese
Click here to download a sample lesson from the VV Approach course that has been subtitled in the Chinese Language.
Visit to the Singapore Aviation Academy
Members of the VV Team have visited the Singapore Aviation Academy for discussions about the future of ATC training. We have been extremely impressed by the facilities there.
Visit to Hong Kong
This week, the Visual Vectoring development team paid a visit to the HKCAD at Chek Lap Kok airport to discuss aspects of ATC recruitment and training.
You can view the VV simulator running a scenario in Hong Airspace here:
Chinese Language Support
The VV Team is adding chinese language support to the training content of the VV ATCX™ training program. This will enable area/enroute ATC candidates in China to better understand training concepts and apply them to simulation.
Visit to New Zealand
Today, Visual Vectoring staff visited Airways Corporation New Zealand to discuss future directions in Air Traffic Control Training.
VV Simulator Version 3.8.11
The VV Simulator version 3.8.11 has entered beta-testing. Improvements and enhancements include:
- Improved Customisation Options: Altimetry, phrasing and geographical settings may be changed to better tailor airspace to mimic existing sectors whilst retaining the advantages of generic training.
- Reworking of Speech Recognition code to suit non-English users of older Windows Versions. Additional flexibility added to the use of speech grammars.
- Improvement in the processing of custom radar tag data.
- Incorporation of predefined distraction tasks, such as arithmetic calculations, to be incorporated into a low fidelity selection tool.
- Bugs rectified in the processing of emulated recognitions for Windows 7 and Vista.
All ATCX users will shortly receive the opportunity to try it. Many of the new airspace feature can be seen in the StackX Demo.
Introducing the VV HMI Primer
The VV Human Machine Interface Primer (HMIp) is a part-task trainer designed to automate basic skills training on a modern Air Traffic Control interface.
The HMIp presents an unfolding traffic scenario which is overlaid with scripted prompts specifying the actions required to be performed by the trainee. These actions may be related to interface interaction or air traffic control instructions.
The VV development team have completed a draft version of the program as proof-of-concept. Click here to download a sample movie showing the technology in action. Note that the interface on which the movie is presented is a neutral one that can be readily adaped to any modern system.
This movie shows a non-radar scenario in class-G airspace. As aircraft flight evolution events such as taxi and departure occur, the interface and control actions required of the trainee are specified and tracked. The HMIp will give the trainee an opportunity to automate these actions, and practice them to perfection.
The script may later be removed from the display so the trainee is required to perform actions without prompting. A score is generated at the end of the scenario and full reporting of performance is available.
In subsequent training, core skills have been mastered, freeing up cognitive space to acquire more complex control skills. The trainee has attained unconscious competence in basic interface usage and traffic management without the need for costly simulator time.
Development on the HMIp is ongoing.