Patent ID: 6876906

Claim:
A method of communicating an uncertainty of a location of an object near an aircraft, comprising: receiving a plurality of signals from positioning sources, each of the positioning sources providing information regarding the location of the object; obtaining a positional uncertainty of the object for each of the plurality of signals, wherein each positional uncertainty is related to an accuracy of the signal to which the respective positional uncertainty relates; combining the obtained positional uncertainties to derive a combined positional uncertainty of the object, wherein the combined positional uncertainty has a first directional component and a second directional component orthogonal to the first directional component; expressing the combined positional uncertainty as a geometric shape; determining if the object is within an anticipated path of the aircraft; and on a display associated with the aircraft upon which the aircraft and the object are graphically represented, graphically superimposing the geometric shape on the graphical representation of the object only when the object is within the anticipated path of the aircraft, to thereby apprise a viewer of the positional uncertainty of the object.