Electro-Optic and Infrared Situational Awareness Display

Human-computer interaction and the display of infrared imagery and electro-optic-sensor data require an improved interface to enhance the situational awareness of the modern warfighter. Current displays, while providing important data, saddle the warfighter with various handicaps. They reduce situational awareness by blocking a portion of the see-through visual field, cannot render omni-directional data in a natural and quickly absorbed fashion due to small display field-of-view, and do not provide high acuity (20/20 vision) due to limited number of pixels. In addition, current displays degrade the natural dark adaptation of the human eye by displaying imagery data in green. Trex proposes the enhanced situational awareness display (ESAD), which eliminates the handicaps inherent in current systems. Proposed see-through head-mounted display takes the form factor of a pair of polycarbonate safety goggles. See-through vision is unblocked, and with the use of foveation, high-acuity can be provided simultaneously with a large display field-of-view, while controlling the data link bandwidth. In Phase-I Trex will develop complete optical and mechanical designs, demonstrate the key components, and demonstrate ESAD manufacturability through specification of venders and preliminary quotes. Preliminary software and graphical user interface will be developed under Phase I option. In Phase-II Trex will manufacture a prototype ESAD.