LSO Head Mounted Display Decision Aiding System

The Landing Signal Officer (LSO) is responsible for the safe and expeditious recovery of aircraft aboard ship. Through rigorous personnel selection and training, LSOs develop the capability to control final approaches by using finely tuned perceptual judgements. Some aircraft carriers are outfitted with a Head Up Display (HUD) console, based on 20-year old design. The proposed SBIR Phase I effort will assess the technical feasibility of designing and developing a Head Mounted Display (HMD) for LSOs that will provide rapid access (a saccadic eye movement) to critical information on aircraft and ship dynamics, while not interfering with direct visual contact with the approaching aircraft. The feasiblity of providing features such as vision enhancement, predictor displays, and decision aiding also will be addressed. The feasibility analysis will encompass all relevant aspects of the sometimes hostile environmental conditions confronting LSOs as well as the need for body mobility and safety. A team of experts in HMDs, computer graphics, display symbology, and human factors engineering has been assigned to the Phase I tasks of developing LSO information requirements, knowledge base engineering, technology projection, conceptual design, and feasibility analysis of an LSO information display and decision aiding system.