Now I See
Written by Peter Buxbaum
SOTECH 2011 Volume: 9 Issue: 3 (May)
Heads-up displays (HUDs), a major technological breakthrough when they were invented, are gaining new-generation advances that will cut costs and add many new features, including binocular views, intensified images, color displays and miniaturization to cut electrical power requirements.
The art of heads-up displays originated in aviation, in order to promote safety and efficiency in pilot operations. Pilots are able to view information with their heads up and looking forward, instead of down looking at instruments.
HUDs include any transparent display that presents data without requiring users to look away from their usual viewpoints. Often, the data is viewed on a translucent screen that sits in front of the aircraft window, or, in the case of a ground vehicle, the windshield.
Typical aircraft HUDs display airspeed, altitude, the horizon line, heading and turn indicators. Military applications of HUDs can also include weapons system and sensor data. The target designation indicator, target range and closing velocity, weapon and sensor lines of sight, and weapon status may all be displayed.
In recent years, HUDs have become “wearable,” meaning, typically, viewable by way of helmet or eyewear displays. Recent advances in HUDs have come to address their high cost, integration issues with host systems and performance improvement.
“Heads up displays promote situational awareness,” said Bruce Georgia, vice president for helicopter avionics at Thales Defense. “You don’t want the pilot to be looking inside the aircraft. You want him to be looking out at all times.”
Situational awareness is promoted through connectivity to digital battlefield systems, such as the blue-force tracking systems that show friendly forces. Microvision Inc., a company based in Redmond, Wash., is working on implementing HUDs in a mode it refers to as “augmented reality.”
“Augmented reality is the intersection of the real world and digital information,” said Jack Clevenger, the company’s business development manager for eyewear. “An important aspect of augmented reality is the superimposition of digital images and characters onto the regular environment.”
The cost of HUDs has prevented their adoption over a broader cross section of military applications, according to Yaron Kranz, senior director for business development and R&D at Elbit Systems, a company based in Haifa, Israel. “Most HUDs are very expensive,” he explained. “Most of them are complicated to integrate into the aircraft. They require a lot of wiring and tight integration into the aircraft avionics. Many potential customers don’t invest in HUDs, not because they don’t want them, but because they can’t afford them due to the complexity of the systems and the costs involved.”
Elbit recently introduced its Targo helmet-mounted avionics technology in order to offer new and wider market access to advanced helmet-mounted technologies.
Performance enhancements have come in the form of the Thales TopOwl aviation helmet, which provides binocular, as opposed to the usual monocular, view of the HUD display. “The TopOwl also provides an intensified image,” said Georgia. “We have also integrated night vision into the goggles.”
The coming of color HUD displays, being worked on by a number of companies, will continue to enhance the utility and performance of HUDs.
“When we went to develop Targo we were looking for a system that would be able to do what the legacy systems do but to open the market by overcoming the disadvantages of complexity and cost,” said Elbit’s Kranz.
The product is particularly suited to special operations missions because, said Kranz, “we wanted to reduce weight and power consumption. This led to miniaturization of the electronics and the ability to package all of the electronics on the helmet itself without an electronics box on the aircraft.”
The system was also built to be modular. “This allows you to build the system like you buy a computer,” said Kranz. “You can decide to get power from the aircraft or a battery, to work wired or wirelessly, to put the controls on the helmet or away from the helmet.”
The Targo helmet also has everything it needs to communicate with the aircraft. “We packaged and loaded onto the helmet a complete navigation system, location designation capability, database accessibility, video and audio recording,” said Kranz, “and it can work with the aircraft with no integration. The customer builds its own menus and definitions and uses it any way they want.”
Targo includes advanced features such as on-deck networking, which facilitates the sharing of information, such as targets and points of interest, among multiple users; pop-up mission advisory information and on-demand database viewing; and software tools to customize system interfaces and display symbols.
The Targo system is based on Elbit’s DASH legacy helmets, which are operational and integrated on the F-15, F-16, and F/A-18 aircraft, among others. Elbit also provides the IHADSS 21, widely used on the Apache helicopter. The company, through a joint venture with Rockwell Collins, also produces the Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS), a standard helmet system for U.S. fixed wing tactical aircraft.
Thales’ TopOwl helmet-mounted sight and display system (HMSD) was recently deployed with French forces in Afghanistan aboard the Tiger helicopter. TopOwl incorporates a night vision system with projection of a binocular image on the visor. Standard symbology is used to display flight and weapon management data, helping to reduce crew workload in day and night conditions.
“The difference between a monocular view and a binocular view is huge for the pilot’s situational awareness,” said Georgia. “TopOwl has increased the field of view to over 40 degrees.”
TopOwl, which integrates image intensifier tubes for night vision, is unique in its design, providing a very low weight and it is well-balanced on the pilot’s head, providing a singular comfort, according to the company.
The system’s night vision performance, which can be improved with the addition of an enhanced vision system, has recently been upgraded to cover most night conditions, providing clear visibility under conditions equivalent to a cloudy night. TopOwl is also capable of switching directly from intensified image projection to high resolution infrared image projection via a simple click, providing improved visibility and safe flight operations in degraded visual environments such as brownout, whiteout and nighttime. TopOwl is installed on the Cobra AH-1Z, Huey UH-1Y, Eurocopter’s Tiger attack helicopter, Europe’s NH90 multipurpose helicopter, and South Africa’s Rooivalk attack helicopter.
One of the major future enhancements for aviation HUDs will be the incorporation of color displays to replace today’s monochrome presentations. Elbit is working on such an enhancement together with Boeing for proposed incorporation in the MV-22 Marine Corps and the CV-22 Air Force versions of the tilt rotor Osprey aircraft, according to Kelly Dameron, director of airborne solutions at Elbit Systems of America, a Fort Worth-based subsidiary of the Israeli company.
“The requirements for color displays have come about mostly for blue-force tracking, [displays] which can identify threats and friendly forces with color codes,” said Dameron. Elbit is working on introducing color displays as an upgrade to its currently installed systems.
“Color is a plus in pilot situational awareness,” noted Georgia. “Colors can be used to emphasize critical situations and events.”
Among other things, colors can be used to denote aircraft performance limitations, Georgia added. He thinks the capability will be introduced very soon.
Microvision is working on two wearable display platforms: helmet mounted displays and eyewear displays. “Both of these products bring a unique feature set to the market,” said Clevenger. “High brightness, for readability in any lighting conditions, high see-through performance—to maintain awareness of the world—and in the case of eyewear, a radically new form factor that is lightweight, ergonomic and looks cool.”
Microvision is endeavoring to bring color displays to military aviation HUDs and see-through displays on ground applications. “Today, there are see-through displays in the military aviation market, but they aren’t full-color,” said Clevenger. “There are full-color displays in the military dismounted soldier market, but they aren’t see-through. Bringing see-through to ground environments, and bringing color to aviation, enables Microvision displays to radically enhance situational awareness, safety and mission effectiveness” to the warfighter.
“Our see-through, high-brightness displays allow a clear view of the environment, while delivering mission critical information to the soldier,” he added. “Our goal is to function as the last critical link that connects the satellite to the soldier, and the soldiers to one another.”
Microvision’s technology combines a thin, full-color laser image engine, known as PicoP, with newly designed clear eyewear optics that channel laser light and direct it to the viewer’s eye while maintaining an unobstructed view of the surroundings. Microvision and its partners are working on head-worn displays that connect to battlefield information systems, and include rugged military helmet-mounted displays to see-through ballistic eyewear displays.
Microvision has delivered its SD3000 helmet mounted display to the Army for evaluation. The company also has contracts with the Air Force to develop and deliver a see-through, full-color eyewear display.
Further, Microvision is a subcontractor to Lockheed Martin as part of the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s Urban Leader Tactical Response, Awareness & Visualization (ULTRA-Vis) program. The program’s objective is to build a soldierworn system that provides non-line-of-sight command and control in distributed urban operations for dismounted warfighters. Under the subcontract, Microvision will develop a daylight-readable, see-through, low-profile, ergonomic eyewear display.
DARPA created the ULTRA-Vis program to bring real-time tactical see-through headsup information to ground soldiers in order to increase their safety and situational awareness in urban environments. “Although tactical information is available to ground soldiers today, existing head-mounted displays and legacy system architectures have prevented this information from being delivered in a low-profile, see-through iconic mode,” said Clevenger. “When integrated to an advanced information management system, Microvision’s eyewear display could enable users to receive visual commands, view iconic representations, and receive other full-color image content overlaid on their view.”
In the DARPA project, Microvision again combined an ultra-miniature display engine with thin, clear optics into a wearable display. “We have the potential to bring battery operable, low-profile, see-through, full-color eye wear displays to users,” said Clevenger. “This eyewear display development could enable information content to be overlaid in the user’s field-of-view in operational environments, providing a critical information advantage. This display could also be used in other applications, where real-time content is needed to improve situational awareness, such as combat support and logistics.” ♦