Ultra Wide Field of View Night Vision Goggles with Spherical Sensing

The currently fielded AN/AVS-9 night vision goggles (NVG) for use by air crew with a 40degrees Field of View (FOV) creates the so-call soda straw-effect that significantly hinders situational awareness desired for many types of missions. This FOV restriction limit has been identified as a causal factor in numerous aviation mishaps. Recognizing the needs for expanding FOV on NVG, we propose to develop a compact ultra-wide FOV night vision system with spherical sensing suitable for helmet mounting for use by the Navy helicopter aircrew for enhanced situation awareness in night time operations. We also include an option for a two-position zooming NVG object lens implementation to switch between standard 40 degrees FOV and ultra-wide FOV. This two-position zooming NVG approach is an integrated solution to provide both broad situation awareness capability and high resolution magnification of the area of interest. We also propose to conduct research and experiments to develop a test plan to determine the advantages and disadvantages of a wide FOV NVG system and the desirability of incorporating two-position zooming feature in NVG.