Scott A. Nelson

Supporting collaborative field operations with personal information processing systems

This paper describes a two‐year research project to develop a personal information processing system (PIPS) solution for the roving industrial field operator. Our PIPS system comprises (1) an RF network to deliver wireless digital information, (2) a wearable computer for delivering web‐based information (the hardware is a two‐piece system composed of a belt‐worn NetPC attached via a curly cable to a handheld unit with a mouse/display device combination), and (3) software applications that provide added value in the field. Unique challenges in designing such a system for this environment include providing: (1) good RF coverage in an environment with many metal structures; (2) an intrinsically safe, lightweight, low‐cost hardware system; and (3) software that is compatible with the wearable system and supports collaboration in the field.

Arthroscopic knee surgery using the advanced flat panel high-resolution color head-mounted display

The first ever deployed arthroscopic knee surgeries have been performed using a high resolution color head-mounted display (HMD) developed under the DARPA Advanced Flat Panel HMD program. THese procedures and several fixed hospital procedures have allowed both the system designers and surgeons to gain new insight into the use of a HMD for medical procedures in both community and combat support hospitals scenarios. The surgeons demonstrated and reported improved head-body orientation and awareness while using the HMD and reported several advantages and disadvantages of the HMD as compared to traditional CRT monitor viewing of the arthroscopic video images. The surgeries, the surgeons comments, and a human factors overview of HMDs for Army surgical applications are discussed here.

Monocular display validation for the dismounted soldier

This paper describes a demonstration of monocular helmet/head mounted display (HMD) approaches conducted at Fort Benning, Dismounted Battlespace Battle Lab. The objective of the monocular demonstration was to explore soldier impressions of monocular HMD concepts relevant to the Generation II Soldier Systems (GEN II) program, and to do so in realistic field settings. Two monocular HMD prototypes were demonstrated to infantry soldiers in daylight, dusk, and night conditions. In general, soldiers found both see-through and look-around monocular HMD approaches to be acceptable, with perceptual differences in approaches most pronounced in daylight viewing. The look-around approach was associated with the best daylight visibility of the electronic display, while the see-through approach was associated with the best daylight visibility of the natural world. Soldier feedback on the acceptabilty of the various HMD configurations will allow the GEN II team to more adequately evaluate HMD design trades in the future.

High-resolution color flat panel head-mounted display design for the Advanced Flat Panel program

The Advanced Flat Panel program is developing high resolution color head mounted display systems for medical and low power applications. The first phase of the program has developed a stereoscopic head-mounted display for arthroscopic and endoscopic surgical applications using high resolution color AMLCDs and 1280 by 1024 spatially colored active matrix electroluminescent image sources. The next phase of the program will target low power color HMD applications with sequentially colored 1280 by 1024 AMEL devices and conclude with the demonstration of a 2560 by 2048 flat panel HMD. The medical HMD design and preliminary user evaluation of the system are discussed here along with a review of the spatially colored AMEL performance and a comparison of system architectures of the three different high resolution color displays that are being demonstrated on this program.

High-resolution flat-panel head-mounted display: results and conclusions from the combat vehicle crew head-mounted display

The Combat Vehicle Crew (CVC) head-mounted display (HMD) program has built the first high-resolution (1280 X 1024) flat panel head mounted display. The CVC HMD is designed for use by the tank commander of an M1 A2 main battle tank and will show both tactical IVIS information and thermal imagery from the commanders independent thermal viewer. The CVC HMD uses 1280 X 1024 active matrix electroluminescent image sources with 24 micrometers pixels and integrated digital drivers. The use of flat panels in the HMD design has allowed new optical and head integration approaches and has required new approaches to the HMD drive electronics. The integration of the first AMEL image sources has been completed and preliminary photometric and subjective image quality evaluations performed. The preliminary findings from these evaluations will be discussed and conclusions regarding the application of flat-panel HMDs presented.

Combat vehicle crew helmet-mounted display: next generation high-resolution head-mounted display

The Combat Vehicle Crew Head-Mounted Display (CVC HMD) program is an ARPA-funded, US Army Natick Research, Development, and Engineering Center monitored effort to develop a high resolution, flat panel HMD for the M1 A2 Abrams main battle tank. CVC HMD is part of the ARPA High Definition Systems (HDS) thrust to develop and integrate small (24 micrometers square pels), high resolution (1280 X 1024 X 6-bit grey scale at 60 frame/sec) active matrix electroluminescent (AMEL) and active matrix liquid crystal displays (AMLCD) for head mounted and projection applications. The Honeywell designed CVC HMD is a next generation head-mounted display system that includes advanced flat panel image sources, advanced digital display driver electronics, high speed (> 1 Gbps) digital interconnect electronics, and light weight, high performance optical and mechanical designs. The resulting dramatic improvements in size, weight, power, and cost have already led to program spin offs for both military and commercial applications.

Quantitative helmet-mounted display system image quality model

Honeywell has developed a quantitative image quality model for the Helmet Mounted Display (HMD) electro-optical systems that will predict the optical performance and image quality of a given system configuration. The linear systems model includes modules for the image intensifier objective, image intensifier tube, fiber optic faceplates and tapers, charge coupled device (CCD) camera, liquid crystal display (LCD) or CRT image source, relay optics, electronic filtering and preprocessing, and a perception model for the eye. Sine wave and square wave system response are predicted via modulation transform function (MTF) calculations as well as the maximum resolution and a measurement of just noticeable differences (jnds) as perceived by the human eye. The model will allow the system designer to quickly and inexpensively evaluate complex systems tradeoffs and modifications to advanced HMD systems.