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Head Up Display - Who will be first

People don't remember but the Ipad was laughed at when it came out. There was a picture of 4 iPhones duct-taped together with a caption like "so what." No one predicted it would destroy the aviation printed chart industry and replace it with something far superior. And there are many other examples. The Ipad is a "disruptive technology." So is Google Glass. It is going to find applications we are not yet imagining. For example - in the control room of a power plant - refinery - chemical plant - the operators look at banks of computer screens and talk to "outside operators" on the radio. Now, the outside operator will be able to see he same control screens - and the console operator able to see the equipment, leak, or problem. This will be a game changer.
 
The HUD idea is very cool. And it will happen. But I'm not how much the google glass will help the aviation community. The problems I see with it is the display is very small and feeding a external audio source into it for speech recognition (not sure if it can be done?). Plus, for most aviation headsets it doesn't look like it will fit well underneath the ear pads. (Even though I prefer the in-ear type).

That being said, this could be a good stepping stone to something useful for pilots.

Make some sort of HUD that hooks onto the side of a headset and has a flip down screen?
 
PC Avionics had a head-mounted display many moons ago - still have it advertised in fact - but I would guess it will take all of 6 months before someone ties Google Glass into a Dynon or GRT display, particularly as they output their ADAHRS data.
 
Still Waiting for This HUD

I think the projection to the back of the propeller is much more practical then having the Google Glass. Not a glass cockpit guru so need someone else to figure out an interface to Garmin or Dynon but I would buy it if someone did the software for the VirtualHud hardware.
http://www.gizmag.com/virtualhud-propeller-projector-hud/12065/

It appears that their website no longer works.
http://www.virtualhud.com/
Anybody know anything about this company or status of buying one of these virtual huds?
 
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Google Glass OSD with HT

This could be a game changer or at least an enhancement. It could solve the less than ideal heads-down AOA indicator position, provide alerts in pilot's field of view (FOV) and show primary flight data.

RC pilots have been using this kind of technology for years now in first person video (FPV) with on-screen-displays (OSD) and head tracking (HT).

How it will fit into the pilot's bag of tools is yet to be seen but using this technology (in RC) makes for a more immersive, intuitive experience. I haven't used Google Glass but other video glasses appear as large 55"-80" monitors viewed from 10-15 feet away.

Will it make it into the cockpit of an E-AB? We'll have to wait and see.
 
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I can see possibilities here for improving traffic awareness, especially after the ADS-b out requirements become effective. If I were looking for a better place to mount an AOA indicator, this would seem to be the perfect place. HITS would be interesting here, too. Airspace depictions might be valuable too, particularly in and around areas like the Washington DC SFRA.

Basic flight data though, not so interesting (at least to me).
 
Aide to TCAS/ADS-b

With head tracking, ADS-b data and OSD the system could pinpoint the traffic for you.

GRT Avionics already shows traffic on the PFD (and MAP) of its HX/HXr EFIS displays. Adding HT and a line of sight display (LOS) takes it a step further, more intuitive, IMO.

Great stuff!
 
Already going on

Lot of this stuff is already going on and has been for a long time. The use of a monocle display on the manufacturing line at GM was explored in 1996 to make key people more efficient and save the cost and impact of them leaving the line for training.
Thousands of head mounted displays sell every month for all kinds of applications from military to medical to power plants etc and of course very sophisticated helmet displays in military aircraft.
There are still quite a few human factor issues that impact their use and in particular when people are using the technology in a dynamic motion environment which can result in significant nausea and motion sickness.
Google has the horsepower to attack many of the problems but so did Disney, Hughes Aircraft, Lockheed, Elbit, E&S and many others and the age old factors still play a role (brightness, resolution, transmissivity, power, field of view, collimation etc)
The value of Google glasses may well be like the iPad, the proliferation of a low cost product drives innovative uses that create a large market that then encourages investment and R&D to solve problems.
 
This is cool stuff. I have sat in the Apache my son flys and put his helmet on. I was amazed at how the display was right there - in my eye only. It was a weird sensation but easy to see why they do it for the military and weapon systems. I guess I don't have the imagination to think it could ever be done for an experimental airplane. What an amazing time to live on earth.

The idea of projecting displays on the back of the propeller blows my mind. I am glad there are people that have true vision. I really like that Carlos is talking about it as a good idea. I was very impressed with the GRT system and the guys explaining them to me at SNF. I believe I will be looking at a HXr in my panel.
 
Noggin tracker

For this to work well, you will need some system to track the pilots cranium. Otherwise its use would be limited. If I could look outside and see a steerpoint on the ground or airspace limits, that would be great. Just having flight data in my eye everywhere I look is not worth the trouble to me and may be disorienting.
 
....I really don't want to come out of retirement and try to clear out all of the software design cobwebs but if somebody doesn't jump on this I might have to.....

Go for it. I wouldn't have one. But I'll bet you can sell a few.

Dave
Yes, a Luddite and proud of it.
RV-3B, building wings for a 40 year old design
Old technology does the job.
 
I sent some time two weeks ago in an E-190 simulator at Jet Blue University. Besides the fact the realism in something to behold, the HUD is amazing. That was my first experience, and it didn't take much time at all to get used to in and understand how to read everything. The "scan" is so much simpler than glancing down. I didn't find it distracting, or disorienting. If we can get something like that, I'm on board. Using Google would be just like a popular GPS using the guts out of a Korean automobile GPS display to keep costs in line.

Bob
 
In a different thread, lots of pilots report a bad dream where they are flying underneath wires looking for a gap to ascend through. I mentioned that would make a good video game. Now, the wires could be added in the google glass and you play the game in your real RV! Or what about the cut-the-roll-of-toilet-paper game - can do that virtually even if you have a tip up canopy now. Or, what about a hit-the-balloon game? Or the acrobatic diagram you are competing with displayed as highway-in-the-sky? Or what about a virtual leader you fly wingman on for formation training? Or the choice to fly slot with the virtual Thunderbirds? Or a virtual dogfight? Or chase a Tie Fighter? Or be a Tie Fighter and chase some of those rebels? Or attack a virtual exhaust port in a virtual trench positioned at 2000 AGL? Or, put Patty Wagstaff in an RV, she does a routine, it's recorded and you have to duplicate it by "following the dots" ?
 
For this to work well, you will need some system to track the pilots cranium. Otherwise its use would be limited. If I could look outside and see a steerpoint on the ground or airspace limits, that would be great. Just having flight data in my eye everywhere I look is not worth the trouble to me and may be disorienting.

Agreed. In the Viper, we have points that track where the HMCS is. I'm curious if these glasses would be able to use GPS position and altitude to track the general position of one's nugget while and internal gyro (after some sort of alignment process) tracks where your eyes are looking.

But I am no engineer nor computer guy....
 
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This could be a game changer or at least an enhancement. It could solve the less than ideal heads-down AOA indicator position, provide alerts in pilot's field of view (FOV) and show primary flight data.

RC pilots have been using this kind of technology for years now in first person video (FPV) with on-screen-displays (OSD) and head tracking (HT).

How it will fit into the pilot's bag of tools is yet to be seen but using this technology (in RC) makes for a more immersive, intuitive experience. I haven't used Google Glass but other video glasses appear as large 55"-80" monitors viewed from 10-15 feet away.

Will it make it into the cockpit of an E-AB? We'll have to wait and see.

I actually have one of these RC FPV systems with the gyroscopic head tracking, OSD, and autopilot. It is a much much cheaper way to fly! Here is a quick video I made, you can see the gps driven EFIS (OSD). This was the only time I ever recorded a video and it was a crash...
http://vimeo.com/2451647
 
Head mounted cockpit video display

Yes this is cutting edge technology. The F35 has a virtual video HUD displayed inside the pilots helmet along with other AIrcraft information and day/night camera images surrounding the aircraft can also be displayed. Hard part in a moving plane is head tracking. Has to be done in a way that won't make the pilot airsick. Add up all the motions that can affect a plane, from seat movement to turbulence to pilot head movement and ground movement plus pitch/roll/ and yaw and maybe a few G's. Not sure if google glasses alone can Handel all of that movement, may need some additional add on head tracking help. But once the head tracking issue is solved and the image processing can keep up with the outside world movement then the sky's the limit on what new ways there will be to project the Efis information we have now and things not even thought of yet into a out the window virtual display. Some day flying your plane may be entirely a virtual experience with no real cockpit displays but using only a head mounted virtual display. You could see in all directions by using cameras mounted around the plane and stitched video so it was seamless. Any cockpit map or engine displays would also be virtual, just a computer Efis projection that would appear if front of you when you turned your head forward and down. ADSB will help find traffic. Target designations (boxes) projected along your virtual line of sight will help locate landmarks or your nav route or traffic or airspace boundaries or a line of sight cue you place over an interesting lake would tell your display computer where you are looking and it could then look up that spot in a geographic data base and tell you what location you were looking at on the ground. Flying would be kind of like floating through air in a glass ball! Cockpit controls could be a combination of voice commands and touch screens or finger movements with smart gloves. But a display screen could have its video created by the video glasses or by the display itself. Any way I agree we are getting close to opening up another new chapter in the world of experimental aircraft avionics. Some will like it, and some won't and that part will keep the forum lively, as always.

Cecil
 
As our friend from Osan mention HMCS is alive and well in the military environment, we have been working the human factors side of this for about 20 years now and have worked through most of the challenges. The first was looking off bore sight with a HUD referenced to the front of the airplane very disorienting. Another was clutter, engineers populated too much on the helmet.

Cranium trackers are effective and available, once affordable it's an easy accommodation for our airplane. They won't need to be perfect, we aren't targeting a weapon just pointing us int the general direction.

I predict within 6 years our current panel displays will backup an eye projected navigation system.
 
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