Wearable Computer for Enhanced Situational Awareness

Luna Innovations, partnering with Virginia Tech’s Configurable Computing Laboratory, shall develop a wearable computer system that leverages the advantages of a unique configurable architecture to dynamically balance requirements for performance, connectivity, power, weight, usability, and ergonomics. Focusing initially on image processing for target detection, target recognition, and situational awareness, Luna shall research a broad array of potential applications for wearable computing within the Air Force. Driven by these applications, the architecture in development will utilize a balance of COTS and custom components to maintain the flexibility to meet mission-specific performance, power, and weight requirements. The key to this flexibility is an architecture built around FPGA-based configurable computing, which permits the reconfiguration of system hardware at runtime. This reconfigurability will allow the architecture to be quickly modified to upgrade or downgrade system performance, features, and connectivity to meet mission-specific battery life, weight, and communications requirements. The Phase I program will consist of applications research, architectural development, and a proof-of-concept prototype for the reconfigurable architecture.