Patent ID: 7327285

Claim:
A system for eliminating terrain color confusion in a visual display, comprising: an altitude determination unit, said altitude determination unit operable to determine a current altitude of an airborne vehicle; a data storage unit, said data storage unit operable to store a first plurality of absolute terrain data elements and a second plurality of relative terrain data elements; and a processing unit coupled to said altitude determination unit and said data storage unit, said processing unit operable to: receive said current altitude of said airborne vehicle from said altitude determination unit; retrieve said first plurality of absolute terrain data elements and said second plurality of relative terrain data elements from said data storage unit; compare said current altitude of said airborne vehicle with said second plurality of relative terrain data elements; and if said comparison of said current altitude of said airborne vehicle and said second plurality of relative terrain data elements indicates that an elevation associated with at least one relative terrain data element of said second plurality of relative terrain data elements is greater than or equal to a predefined elevation associated with said current altitude of said airborne vehicle, generate a first plurality of non-color coded visual display control signals associated with said first plurality of absolute terrain data elements such that the first plurality of non-color coded visual display control signals removes all colors or hues in a visual display of said first plurality of absolute terrain data elements, and generate a second plurality of color coded visual display control signals associated with said at least one relative terrain data element.