MICROVISION HAS signed agreements to demonstrate helmet-mounted displays (HMDs) using technology which projects images directly into the pilot's eye. The company will deliver one virtual retinal display (VRD) to Boeing Saab and two to an unnamed systems integrator.
The Seattle, Washington-based company plans to have production VRD-based displays available by the third quarter of 1998. Earlier this year it signed a deal with Saab covering research into advanced display systems, including VRDs (Flight International, 18-24 June).
Microvision's VRD scans a light beam across the retina, creating an image which the company claims is brighter, with higher resolution and contrast, than that produced by conventional HMDs, which project the image on to a transparent "combiner" in front of each of the pilot's eyes.
Light-emitting-diode and solid-state-semiconductor lasers are used as the light source, and the beam is mechanically scanned horizontally and vertically to create the image. Optics direct the beam on to the retina, providing a field of view of up to 55 degrees for each eye.
The HMD technology-demonstrator to be delivered to Boeing in August will be the first full-colour VRD system, Microvision says. Two prototype displays will be delivered to Saab by October for use in a simulator, and Saab, EricssonSaab Avionics and Microvision will jointly investigate commercial development of VRD technology for military applications. Under its third agreement, Microvision will deliver prototypes in October and in January 1998, as the first step in a joint effort with an unnamed partner to develop VRD-based HMDs for fixed-wing aircraft.
Source: Flight International
