Wide-angle Augmented Reality Infantry Operational Robust Heads-Up Display

To address the Navy’s need for next generation heads-up displays (HUDs) to provide training aids, operational tools, and situational awareness (SA) visualizations, Intellisense Systems, Inc. proposes to develop a new Wide-angle Augmented-Reality Infantry Operational Robust Heads-Up-Display (WARIOR-HUD) based on an innovative integration of a wide field-of-view (FOV) conformal layered optical spheroid lens optics with curved holographic waveguide, a high resolution tiled liquid-crystal-on-silicon (LCOS) laser-illuminated light engine with a foveating combiner layout, and a multiplexed video parsing electronic processor. Specifically, the innovation in the proposed system design will enable WARIOR-HUD to be low cost, provide better FOV and resolution than current high-resolution training and tactical HUD/HMD systems, and meet the Navy’s cost and performance requirements. As a result, the WARIOR-HUD offers panoramic high-resolution, high frame-rate imagery with full motion tracking and allows the users/soldiers to see all the surrounding area and interact with each other safely. In Phase I, Intellisense will design a WARIOR-HSD that meets or exceeds the Navy’s requirements, determine its feasibility through experiments, develop an initial prototype and testing its performance addressing human factor issues, and develop a prototype plan for Phase II, addressing refined hardware and software requirements for Marine Corps use in close-air support (CAS) and call-for-fire (CFF) missions. In Phase II, Intellisense will develop and demonstrate two functional WARIOR-HUD prototypes, evaluate their performance, compare their performance with current training simulators and tactical HUD systems for potential Marine Corps use in CAS and CFF missions, and identify areas for improvement.