A High Resolution Ultra-wide FOV Telepresence Display

NASA has embarked on an ever more ambitiouspath of developing modular space exploration systems, andhuman exploration missions. To enable missionsthat are envisioned for the future, advances inthe human/robotic interface are required. Thisproposal provides a new telepresence interface, basedon an ultra-wide field-of-view (FOV) HMD. This fullyimmersive HMD has a FOV which nearly matches the unobstructedhuman visual field, and maintains high resolution throughout.By combining this immersive display with a customcamera system and appropriate software, a telepresencesystem capable of high-fidelity depth perception, FOV andresolution is possible. This tool would be a significantbenefit to human operators of robotic systems.In Phase 1 we will design a tiled, wide FOV camera arrayand appropriate 3D software to interface between thisarray and the HMD. The product of Phase 2 will be acomplete working telepresence system with custom camera arrayand HMD. There are strong commercialization opportunities in theengineering services industry and various governmentagencies, as they are known users of telepresence systemsfor remote operation of robots and vehicles.