BANC3's ThirdEye X2 -- Augmented Reality to Power the Future of Navy Maintenance Operations

BANC3 proposes to leverage its years of experience designing AR headsets for the commercial and military market to develop a complete headset design package for a rugged, marinized, self-contained AR headset at our secure facility in Princeton, NJ. We will create a package of design documentation such as a design specification, hardware specification, software architecture, mechanical design specification, thermal specification, battery & power specification, and security plan. We will also include a method for two-factor authentication using CAC cards, as well as several 3D drawings of the proposed mechanical design. BANC3 will include in the design documentation a plan and approach for EMI, HERO, high/low temp operation, salt-fog, and water resistance as ruggedization requirements. BANC3 also describes a hardware and software agnostic approach that will enable the headset to be upgraded and modified for years to come. BANC3 also proposes a software/hardware architecture for SLAM (for orientation), 3D object recognition, and AR overlay. We also describe a hardware and software agnostic approach that will enable the headset to be upgraded and modified for years to come. Then, in the Phase I option / Phase II, BANC3 introduces a plan to take the design from prototype to commercial production using our extensive experience in manufacturing commercial AR headsets as well as introducing some of our commercial customers who are urging us to develop a rugged headset. There are many technical challenges for this design. The high and low temperature operating points are difficult for standard COTS hardware to achieve, and battery life under low temperature is degraded by over 50%. Designing a sunlight-readable AR display requires careful planning and understanding of optical design and thermal impact. Ruggedization of this display will need a well thought out mechanical approach. Making a water & salt-fog resistant device requires careful mechanical planning upfront to design seals, input-output ports, and understanding the thermal impact on electronics in a sealed/semi-sealed enclosure. BANC3’s latest electronics miniaturization approaches will be required to meet SWAP goals. Finally, a solid understanding of mobile development is necessary to make a headset that can operate for 6-8 hours inside the SWAP goal of 600g. BANC3 believes this limit is challenging for a self-contained headset, but doable based on our measurements of our existing AR headsets.  BANC3 describes our approach to solving all significant technical challenges. It then further presents our strategy for meeting the safety and reliability goals of 501.5, 502.5, 509.5, 516.6, as well as the EMI requirements of HERO, MIL-STD-461 and MIL-STD-810. We discuss how we will handle operation in high and low temperature, and how our design will handle salt-fog and water ingress. BANC3 also includes a discussion of how we will design for and test for EMI and HERO related requirements.