Patent ID: 8310446

Claim:
An avionics system for positioning a graphical object on an electronic display, comprising: a) a coarse positioning input control element for providing a coarse position input signal, said coarse positioning input control element being selected from a group consisting of: joysticks, trackballs, touch pads, and mice; b) a fine positioning input control element for providing a fine position input signal, said fine positioning input control element being selected from a group consisting of: rotary knobs, scroll wheels, rocker switches, and pushbuttons; and, c) a microprocessor directly connected to said coarse positioning input control element and directly connected to said fine positioning input control element, said microprocessor for integrating said coarse position input signal and said fine position input signal, and providing a microprocessor output signal to the electronic display, wherein manipulation of said coarse positioning input control element provides a rapid and coarse manual positioning of the graphical object and manipulation of said fine positioning input control element provides accurate incremental positioning of the graphical object anywhere on the electronic display, thereby optimizing the efficiency for graphical object positioning on the electronic display; and, d) a control switch operatively connected to said microprocessor for engaging a graphical object positioning mode, wherein said coarse positioning input control element and said fine positioning input control element can be used to interchangeably position said graphical object, said control switch also capable of disengaging said graphical object positioning mode, wherein, i) said graphical object is positionable by said coarse positioning input control element over a defined region to highlight this region in an initial step of a graphical flight planning operation; ii) said control switch is used to bring a task menu into view related to said highlighted region, providing a plurality of tasks; iii) said coarse positioning input control element is used to slew said graphical object over a desired task to highlight a selected task; iv) said control switch is used to select said highlighted task and engage said graphical object positioning mode related to said flight planning operation wherein both said coarse positioning and said fine positioning input control elements are engageable in said graphical object positioning mode to provide desired positioning of said graphical object; and, v) manipulation of said control switch completes said task.