DEVELOPMENT OF PROTOTYPE STRUCTURAL RESIN WHEELCHAIR

Not Available Night-vision capability is a significant advantage for aviators performing missions with limited ambient illumination. However, scenes viewed with night-vision equipment under starlight illumination appear quite different from those same scenes when viewed under full sunlight illumination. These differences include brightness variations due to the nature of the illumination and the responsivity of the night-vision systems, anomalous artifacts such as haloing and loss of low-light contrast due to the presence of intense light sources, and a loss of effective visual acuity under conditions of very low light. As with other sophisticated technologies, a properly trained operator can effectively utilize a given system within the constraints of its performance limitations. Flight simulators are an example of effective training mechanisms that provide safe, cost-effective, and observable educational platforms. The difficulty in incorporating night-vision goggles (NVGs) into such systems is that current simulator display technology cannot sufficiently exercise or simulate the critical NVG characteristics described above. In this proposal, we describe an approach to emulate the full range of NVG characteristics for out-the-window simulators. Our approach augments existing simulators, uses actual NVG hardware (so that peripheral imagery, user work load, and night-vision phenomena are properly represented), and relies on existing image generators.