United States Navy Engineer Dennis Gallagher has developed an augmented reality (AR) helmet for navy divers. The prototype is sitting at the US Navy’s Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division (NSWC PCD) and utilizes the same head-up display principles that aircraft in the US military use today. The helmet has HUD technology embedded into it, says the Navy.
It is called the Divers Augmented Vision Display (DAVID) and will revolutionise the way Navy divers conduct their dives. Gallagher belongs to the Underwater Systems Development Project that develops new technologies for the US navy.
“By building this HUD directly inside the dive helmet instead of attaching a display on the outside, it can provide a capability similar to something from an ‘Iron Man’ movie. You have everything you visually need right there within the helmet,” Gallagher said.
The helmet will be able to give real-time updates on a visual display. Updates that pertain to “sonar, text messages, diagrams, photograms and even augmented reality videos,” the engineers confirmed. The new helmet could ensure the safety of divers during operations by giving divers accurate underwater navigation to hard to reach areas. The Navy also says the helmet will assist with “underwater construction and salvage operations” and foresees a future where consumers could buy diving masks with augmented reality built in based on this prototype.
The first tests of the helmet will be conducted in October.
Source: America’s Navy