Expanding Helicopter Pilots Field of View

SA Photonics has developed a new class of digital night vision head mounted displays, which represent a breakthrough in digital night vision with their low-profile digital sensors and high resolution, wide field of view displays. For the first time in a head mounted display (HMD), night vision imagery can be digitally enhanced and recorded. The purpose of the current STTR project is to develop a wide field of view digital night vision prototype that addresses the unique needs of the helicopter community, including increased field of view, reduced obscurations (especially in the lower quadrants of the unaided field of view) and the desire for color imagery. This system will have a resolution which matches that of AN/AVS-9 night vision goggles, but at more than twice the field of view. We have partnered with the world-renown University of Arizonas Optical Sciences Center for the design of the wide field of view of the display optics.