SBIR-STTR Award

The close-quarters battle (CQB) simulation application is a demanding one but it is exciting to realize that the technology pieces are all now available to actually realize a wide FOV HMD for this kind of application. Putting them together and meeting the ergonomic constraints will be to realize many peoples expectations for HMDs at last. Finally, there are commercially available microdisplays in decent resolutions for head mounted display (HMD) applications. We have also been watching for wide field of view optics developments and are pleased that we have invented a potentially commercially viable solution called WideVision. Fakespace is looking forward to working with our Research Partner, the University of Southern California. Professor Scott Fisher has extensive experience in the creation of interactive virtual environments. Kirk Moffitt will serve as a consultant to the project and has extensive experience with the ergonomic, optical, and display design issues for HMDs in both military and civilian applications.

Benefit:
An HMD design which is both wide field of view and provides clear images for close-quarters battle. Such an HMD is also well suited to commercial applications such as interactive entertainment, games, and design. There is an opportunity at the present time because the component technologies to pull this together are now availbel commercially and at reasonable cost.

Keywords:
CQB, CQB, HMD, Wide FOV, immersive, displays

To fight and win, the soldier needs to see clearly and to his sides. Virtual close quarters battle (CQB) simulation systems need to mirror this simple reality, yet the magnification required to create such wide imagery from micro-displays traditionally requires large and heavy lenses. This results in head mounted displays that are too heavy and cumbersome for the rapid motions typical of CQB. Phase I prototyped and proved the feasibility of a novel optical design that weighs a mere ounce, is based on newly available components, and produces a visual field of over 110 degrees per eye. This is roughly twice the visual field of current approaches and is less than half the size and weight. Phase II will integrate this innovation with available micro-displays, drive electronics and other optical components into a complete head mounted display prototype that has a very wide visual field, high quality images, good ergonomics and is comfortable to use - even with rapid head and body motions. The design will be reliable and economical to commercialize. Such a device remains one of the few missing components required to create a personal CQB training system.

Benefit:
The immersive display system developed during this program will fill a need for a rugged, economical, compact, and lightweight wide field-of-view head mounted display. A broad range of government applications requiring - and currently trying to acquire - such a device include: ground and ship-based forces training; firefighting, law enforcement and other first-responder training; simulation-based design and piloting of remote vehicles. Commercial and government sector applications which have already developed the software and markets for such a display, but currently resort to large and expensive projection-based designs include: computer aided design and review; large scientific data-set visualization and information mining, extraction and exploitation. Due to the inherent low cost of the proposed optical approach, larger consumer market applications will be considered, including video game console displays and augmented reality displays for mobile telephones.

Keywords:
Optics, Wide FOV, Training, immersive, Telerobotics, Wide Field of View, HEAD MOUNTED DISPLAY, displays, Immersion, presence, CQB, HMD