What soldiers need for superior data sharing on the battlefield is a tiny screen, a \u201cmicro-display\u201d about the size of a postage stamp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It may sound counterintuitive, but Army researchers say that such a miniature screen may be just the thing for delivering vital tactical data in challenged circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a size-weight-and-power issue,\u201d said Gene Klager, deputy director for the Ground Combat Systems Division in the Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate at CERDEC, the Army\u2019s Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center. \u201cYou mount it on your head, and since it\u2019s closer to the eye you don\u2019t need the larger display. Then it can be small, lightweight and low power.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The emerging technology was field-tested recently by soldiers at Fort Benning’s Maneuver Center of Excellence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A tiny head-mounted display would free up soldier to move easily, and quickly deliver visual elements even in low light or in situations with poor visibility. Nor would it require the soldier to glance at a peripheral device or otherwise divert attention away from the forward-facing scene. In addition, the display could improve broad-daylight operations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you\u2019ve ever tried looking at your cellphone on a sunny day, it\u2019s really hard,\u201d said CERDEC electrical engineer David Fellowes in an Army news release. The small-screen module currently under development would be bright enough to overcome this common hurdle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As envisioned, the micro-display would add an augmented-reality capability to the soldier\u2019s toolkit. \u201cIt allows us to overlay information to improve situational awareness \u2015 locations of friendly forces, locations of potential threats and also navigation information,\u201d Klager said. \u201cThe soldier can use these points on a display to navigate rather than having to look down at a paper map or look down at the Nett Warrior user device. He has that information in front of him while maintaining heads-up, eyes-out situational awareness.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The display would draw on sensor inputs from a range of data sources. It might be fed by the Nett Warrior suite and could also draw intelligence from vehicle mounted command-and-control systems. \u201cAll that information is already available,\u201d Klager said. \u201cWe just want to add that information to what the soldier is already looking at, without the soldier having to look away at some other system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The big challenges to getting small<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The development team has tackled several technical challenges to shrink screen size by orders of magnitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Coping with bright sunlight was a major hurdle. Most commercial screen solutions can\u2019t deliver the necessary brightness with the full color and high definition needed to support soldier applications, and commercial cell phone makers are generally focused on making screens bigger, rather than smaller. Thus, a substantial internal development effort was required to overcome the glare issue, Klager said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Engineers also have pushed for a screen that could deliver data not just legibly, but accurately. \u201cSay we take friendly-force information, which is a two-dimensional grid coordinate. We have to accurately display that in three dimensions, in the real world. That icon has to be accurate,\u201d Klager said. \u201cThat is the big challenge in augmented reality, the geolocation of the augmented information. You can\u2019t just display it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The team has leaned on digital terrain data, horizon matching and other advanced techniques to ensure the display data correlates correctly to information in the real world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally, developers have worked to ensure that a micro-sized display will still be user friendly. When you\u2019re trying to squeeze vital combat intel onto a very small screen, \u201cit\u2019s about displaying the right amount of information and displaying it effectively,\u201d Klager said. \u201cYou have to make the displays user-configurable depending on the user function or preference. Say I was a driver: I\u2019d want to have navigation information available, and perhaps close threats, but I don\u2019t need to see long-range targets. If I were a gunner I\u2019d want to see threats and friendly forces at all ranges,.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CERDEC is now working with PEO Soldier to develop further requirements, and developers say they hope to be fielding the solution within one to two years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Army researchers say that miniature screen the size of a postage stamp could deliver vital tactical data in challenged circumstances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":47818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":16,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[106,29,16,32],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2063],"class_list":["post-16023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-it-networks","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"QHAS4BO2QFFX3CS2LABXHUD44Q","arc_canonical_url":"\/it-networks\/2018\/08\/17\/what-is-this-a-screen-for-ants\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n