Any value flying with the Apple Watch?

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Diamond_Dan
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Re: Any value flying with the Apple Watch?

Post by Diamond_Dan »

I was trying to think of some features where a watch would be uniquely helpful, such as a pulse-Ox warning mentioned by Lance. Things that are not obvious by looking at the PFD in front of you. I would like to have a warning that would bump your wrist if you stray from a desired altitude or heading (would this be cheating for a flight test?). How about a double-tap if you stray below 1000' AGL? A subtle staccato vibration when you are within 2 miles of another aircraft would be a favorable alternative to "TRAFFIC!" that can disturb passengers. How about setting block altitude warnings by voice using a Bluetooth connection to your phone (Hey Siri!).

Can you even feel an iWatch vibrate while you are flying?
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pietromarx
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Re: Any value flying with the Apple Watch?

Post by pietromarx »

Can you even feel an iWatch vibrate while you are flying?
I wear one while flying and can't remember ever feeling it. Mine tells me to breathe, stand up, etc. when I'm on the ground, so maybe I'm less stressed while flying? :-)
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pietromarx
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Re: Any value flying with the Apple Watch?

Post by pietromarx »

- I'm constantly trying to see and avoid traffic when flying in the crowded northeast US, where I can see the target on the PFD (with SVT) and MFD, but can't find it when looking at the sky. Imagine having the glasses pinpoint the exact location of other aircraft when you turn your head in the correct direction to see it. The location precision of ADS-B over TIS/TAS would permit this.
I fly in LA and SF and see the need for better traffic visualization, too. While I agree that "glasses" with AR would be a great use case, the tech simply isn't there, such glasses don't exist, and the solutions today would give you some very large problems. First off, projectors for glasses and other 2D displays put everything in the same plane of focus. Think of your computer screen: while the content maybe in 3D, the screen is 2D and your eyes focus only on the screen, not the 3D objects rendered "inside" the screen. The real world has a very large field of view with nearly infinite planes of focus. Your eyes would have to focus upon an AR view in exactly the same way that your eyes focus today on your PFD/MFD and you would have to refocus your eyes to find the other traffic out there in the "real world." If you've used Google Goggles, DAQRI, Microsoft HoloLens, etc., then you will remember that you have to refocus your eyes upon the projected surface and then refocus when you look at the real world. Flying would not be a great place to put different focal planes that travel with your head movements into your line of sight and this is why HUDs are fixed to the airframe and not your body.
- Occasionally I can't find the destination airport. Last week I was flying IFR to Caldwell, NJ (KCDW) and requested the visual approach from NY Approach since the weather was clear. To keep me clear of Teterboro and Morristown airport traffic, I was vectored to Caldwell from the west and down to 2000 feet, and NY Approach kept asking if I could see the airport (4 times). I couldn't, because the main runway there is surrounded by trees and hills, and I was kept down low perpendicular to the runway. I didn't finally see the airport until only 2 miles away, despite all the guidance provided by the G1000, and ATC telling me where to look. AR glasses would point out exactly where the airport was while looking in that direction.
Same issues as with the traffic discussion above and one additional one raised by your use case: can you safely tell ATC that you have the airport (or other traffic) in sight if the view is actually one rendered by a computer? I'm not sure the FARs cover this, but I imagine that the FAA and ATC imagine that you actually see the airport and traffic with your biologic eyes (and any [passive] corrective lenses). I don't think that pilots can report runways in sight if they're only rendered on the HUD and not visible to the "naked" eye.
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Re: Any value flying with the Apple Watch?

Post by CFIDave »

pietromarx wrote:can you safely tell ATC that you have the airport (or other traffic) in sight if the view is actually one rendered by a computer?
Of course not, in the same way that I don't tell ATC "Traffic in sight" if I only see it on the G1000. (Although I do hear pilots on the radio occasionally tell ATC "Got'em on the fish finder" when asked by ATC to look for traffic. :thumbsd: )
The whole idea is that the glasses would tell you exactly where to look, so that you could more easily find (and actually see) the real airport or traffic.

As for your concern that it's difficult to display an image on smart glasses without the user having to constantly refocus across different focal planes, check out this product (their video even shows it working in a DA42): https://glass.aero
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Re: Any value flying with the Apple Watch?

Post by pietromarx »

As for your concern that it's difficult to display an image on smart glasses without the user having to constantly refocus across different focal planes, check out this product (their video even shows it working in a DA42): https://glass.aero
Yes, I've seen it and admire their pushing the envelope (a good aviation term!).

The glasses require you to focus on the graphics separately from the real world. By way of illustration of the issue in a somatic way, first person cameras such as those found in videogames and these types of mixed reality setups require extremely low latency and fluid movements to avoid producing nausea. Immersive virtual environments such as VR require even more as they're moving the camera in sync with you moving your head. Throw in a real world camera or eyes mixing in rendered graphics on top and you're now in a place where fidelity is paramount (and unsolved in consumer tech).

The video shows rendered runways, towers, etc., moving out of sync with the real world imagery. Frankly, I get nauseous enough from VR and first person shooters to want to try and use this in a moving airplane IMC. This is why AR has generally been limited to smartphones, HUDs, and the like; your eyes, brain, and inner ear don't expect to use the display for balancing your body.

I look forward to hearing people's reactions when these things come out, but I personally will be waiting until at least version 5 before trying to use something like this at night over terrain avoiding traffic and weather.
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Re: Any value flying with the Apple Watch?

Post by carym »

I have written a few apps for the iOS after I got my series 1 apple watch. I know the watch has the hardware to be able to give oxygen saturation, but Apple won't release the API and/or details to be able to use this functionality. In my mind this would be a "killer" app as one can continuously monitor oxygen saturation and give a physical warning when the Sp02 got below 90% (or whatever value you would set). As I understand it, the problem is that Apple doesn't want to get involved with the FDA in making this available because such apps would be providing medical recommendations (not just medical information). The hardware is supposed to be there, we just need to have the software available to be able to use that hardware. A Version 1.0 of such an app would be so easy to write, and would be so useful.

As an aside, I really do love my Apple watch. I am able to get text alerts on the watch while flying as long as I am low enough to get cell tower coverage. I have used the ForeFlight app on the watch a couple of times, but really didn't find it very useful as the same data is readily available on the iPad which is running ForeFlight.

I have written to ForeFlight to see if they can convince Apple to allow us (or ForeFlight) to develop an oxygen saturation App. I have had no success with that approach either, even though Tyson Weihs (the creator of ForeFlight) is a DA40 owner and a member of this forum.
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Re: Any value flying with the Apple Watch?

Post by gordsh »

I use the series 3 apple watch primarily for reminding me to switch tanks. I set it for 30 minutes and I get a consistent vibration on my wrist as a reminder, fuel pump on and I switch the tanks, fule pump off. I am still a student pilot and I have forgotten to switch tanks many times prior to using the watch as a reminder. I have set the scheduler in the G1000 but it seems to just keep running from the last time you powered down the G1000 and not reset each time. Also the Foreflight mirrored app on the watch has a nice rendering of METARS for nearest and favourite airports which I use before flights just to check wind speed, visibility, etc. I also use the calculator app when filling up the tanks with AVGas for converting between liters and gallons. Other than that there are not any other apps that I can find for aviation use.
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Re: Any value flying with the Apple Watch?

Post by Mhutton »

Try the Aerovie app. Its functionality with the Iwatch is better than that of Foreflight. Also the app itself has a vertical weather profile generated by Skew T Log charts. This is my primary reason to use the app in addition to Foreflight,
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Re: Any value flying with the Apple Watch?

Post by Antoine »

If the watch had an oxymeter, it would make it very very useful for pilots.
Everything else is nonsense in my view.
Why on earth would one want to use a wrist mounted backup GPS in an emergency?
Whoever expects a pilot to look up NRST on their left wrist using their right hand to click though the watch's menu while deciphering a 0.5" display AND flying an aircraft must have been flying elevators for the last 20 years.
Instruments belong in the panel. Health check devices can be wearable. Plain common sense.
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Re: Any value flying with the Apple Watch?

Post by gordsh »

I tried the Aerovie app, its very cool but does not have database downloads for Canada only USA :(.
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