Patents by Inventor Samuel T. Clark

Samuel T. Clark has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20090306887
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for building, creating, or otherwise specifying an airport ground taxi navigation route for an aircraft from an input of the route is disclosed. The apparatus includes a keypad, voice recognition device, or other entry device, a processor, a display screen, and a navigation map database. A crewmember on the aircraft uses the entry device to enter all or part of the ground navigation taxi route. The entry device converts the received route information into an input text string, either with or without delimiters. The system parses the input text string by extracting characters or substrings from the input text string. A database lookup component searches the map database to find a route component that matches the character or substring. If the system finds a matching route component, it determines if the matching route component is continuous with the taxi route. The system adds the matching route component to the taxi route and displays any discontinuity.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 4, 2008
    Publication date: December 10, 2009
    Applicant: The Boeing Company
    Inventors: Samuel T. Clark, Roglenda R. Bowe, Wayne R. Jones
  • Publication number: 20090292408
    Abstract: A method of an aircraft communicating a current position status, a current movement status, a current intent, and/or an intended future path, position, or intent of the aircraft may include the aircraft generating explicit first ownship information related to the current position status and/or the current movement status of the aircraft, and/or a flight management or other aircraft system of the aircraft generating information related to the intended future path, position, or intent of the aircraft. The aircraft may transmit the explicit first ownship information and/or the second information using an automatic dependent surveillance broadcast system transmitter. An airborne and/or ground receiver may receive the transmitted information related to the explicit first ownship information and/or the second information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 20, 2008
    Publication date: November 26, 2009
    Applicant: THE BOEING COMPANY
    Inventors: SYED TAJI SHAFAAT, SAMUEL T. CLARK
  • Publication number: 20090157300
    Abstract: A system and method is provided for receiving and displaying a taxiway navigation route on a control display unit having at least one entry field and a plurality of display lines. A plurality of taxi route segments are received from an entry field. The plurality of taxi route segments include at least a first taxi route segment and a second taxi route segment. The taxi route segments are assigned to separate display lines in the order in which the taxi route segments were received to form a taxiway navigation route. The taxi route segments are displayed on the control display unit in the order in which the taxi route segments were received. The display line in which the first taxi route segment is to be assigned can be selected. In addition, navigation data corresponding to the taxi route segments can be identified, retrieved, and assigned to the respective taxi route segment.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 12, 2007
    Publication date: June 18, 2009
    Applicant: The Boeing Company
    Inventors: Samuel T. Clark, Robert P. Smith, Roglenda R. Bowe, Andrew D. Neff
  • Publication number: 20090157303
    Abstract: A method is provided for modifying navigation information on a control display unit which has at least one entry field and a plurality of display lines. The method includes at least receiving a plurality of delete command entries, receiving a display line selection, determining the number of delete command entries, identifying a navigation route segment displayed in the selected display line, wherein the navigation route segment displayed in the selected display line comprises at least a first navigation route segment, deleting the first navigation route segment, deleting navigation route segments which follow the first navigation route segment in sequential order until the number of deleted navigation route segments equals the number of delete command entries received, and displaying the navigation information. A system which executes the method is also provided.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 16, 2008
    Publication date: June 18, 2009
    Applicant: THE BOEING COMPANY
    Inventors: SAMUEL T. CLARK, ROBERT P. SMITH, ROGLENDA R. BOWE, ANDREW D. NEFF
  • Publication number: 20090051570
    Abstract: A aircraft traffic display system, aircraft including the display system and a method of displaying aircraft and vehicle traffic in the display system. The system includes an ownship location finder determining ownship location and maps, including airport maps stored in map storage. A traffic information collector collecting information on airport and other traffic. A local display displays ownship on a moving map at a selected range and all airport traffic within range, or a filtered subset thereof. An off-scale traffic processor monitors off-scale traffic beyond the selected range and identifies of-interest off-scale traffic. The local display also provides an indication of any of interest off-scale traffic. The indication may visibly indicate status (e.g., air or ground) of respective said off-scale traffic and may include traffic specific information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 20, 2007
    Publication date: February 26, 2009
    Inventors: Samuel T. Clark, Roglenda R. Bowe, Taji Shafaat, Michael P. Snow
  • Publication number: 20080275642
    Abstract: Methods and systems for presenting a current position of a vehicle on a moving map display are provided. The method includes determining a current position and a path of travel of the vehicle, determining a current position of at least one of a second vehicle, an object, and an area of interest wherein determining a current position of the second vehicle includes determining a path of travel of the second vehicle, and displaying a depiction of the vehicle and at least a portion of the at least one of the second vehicle, the object, and the area of interest at a first range setting. The method further includes automatically changing from the first range setting to a second range setting based on at least one of an approach autorange activation, an offscale traffic activation, and an offscale object or area of interest autorange activation, and displaying the ownship depiction and at least a portion of the at least one of the second vehicle, the object, and the area of interest at the second range setting.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 4, 2007
    Publication date: November 6, 2008
    Inventors: Samuel T. Clark, William L. Goodman, Roglenda R. Bowe, Michael P. Snow
  • Publication number: 20080136677
    Abstract: A method and a system for indicating a target idle running speed, a predicted core speed, a predicted time to running, current engine state or automation modes of an operating aircraft engine, and indicating that the current core speed of the aircraft engine is less than a target idle running speed or is abnormally decreasing towards a target idle running speed. The indicators may be visual or aural. The visual indicators may include graphical or numeric symbols indicating the target idle running speed, the direction of core speed change, the predicted core speed at some future time, or current engine state or automation mode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 7, 2006
    Publication date: June 12, 2008
    Inventors: Samuel T. Clark, Andrew W. Houck, Joseph A. Sikora, Roglenda R. Bowe
  • Publication number: 20080106438
    Abstract: Systems and methods for runway status indication and related traffic information displays and filtering are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method for displaying runway status includes defining a monitored volume for each of one or more runways, determining a runway status for each of the one or more runways based on at least one of a state of at least one traffic vehicle and a monitoring vehicle state with respect to each monitored volume. The method continues with selecting at least one runway status for display based on the state of the monitoring vehicle. The method then presents the at least one runway status within the monitoring vehicle. In an additional embodiment, each monitored volume is based on a length of a corresponding runway, a width of the corresponding runway, and a predetermined altitude above the corresponding runway.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 2, 2006
    Publication date: May 8, 2008
    Applicant: THE BOEING COMPANY
    Inventors: Samuel T. Clark, Michael P. Snow, Roglenda R. Bowe, Howard F. Au
  • Patent number: 7222017
    Abstract: A system and method are provided for the efficient entry and display of ground taxi routes on an electronic airport map display. The system may include a touchscreen entry device, a display device, a computer, a map database, a vehicle position sensor and a transmitter/receiver. The system may be configured to check the ground taxi entries to ensure that each successive segment is contiguous with the last or next segment, and any gaps or discontinuities in the displayed taxi instructions may be annunciated. An intelligent display of next possible segments may be incorporated into the system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2007
    Assignee: The Boeing Company
    Inventors: Samuel T. Clark, Wayne R. Jones, Michael P. Snow, Eddie J. Trujillo
  • Patent number: 6784869
    Abstract: A cursor control display and management system for a flight deck of an aircraft for enabling one of a plurality of multi-function displays to be selected and used without the need to physically select controls from a separate panel. The system includes a pair of cursor control devices (CCDs) each having a cursor movement mechanism, a menu select switch, a function select switch and, depending on the specific embodiment, a group of display selector switches. The display selector switches are used to select the CCD cursor to specific displays for use from each CCD. Once a specific display has been selected, the CCD's cursor can be placed over a function on the selected display and the function select switch pressed to select a specific function. A standard or unique pop-up menu or control panel can be displayed on the selected display by pressing the menu select switch on the CCD.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2000
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2004
    Assignee: The Boeing Company
    Inventors: Samuel T. Clark, Rolf J. Braune