Design of an Advanced Helmet Mounted Display (AHMD)

High fidelity visual display capability has long been a critical element in successfully training war-fighters. This paper presents the results of a project to develop an affordable, ergonomically designed, augmented reality, Advanced Helmet Mounted Display (AHMD) system. AHMD blends computer-generated data (symbology, synthetic imagery, enhanced imagery) with the actual and simulated visible environment. Critical requirements included ability to be used on the user's own unmodified helmet, rapid self fitting and alignment, with a wide (100 degrees x 50 degrees) field of view (FOV), low mass and balanced center of mass (CM), maximized see-through (> 60%) with image quality (> 0.5 cy/mr resolution and > 30:1 ANSI contrast ratio) that supports training. This paper will outline the design, incorporating a number of innovative concepts, manufacture and performance of the resulting AHMD. This innovation in visual display technology can be used to support deployable reconfigurable training solutions, traditional simulation requirements, UAV augmented reality, air traffic control and Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) applications.