Wearable PC with an Artificial-Reality Helmet

Roland Piquepaille writes "In this short article, InformationWeek writes that 'two sexy technologies that flamed out five years ago -- wearable computers and artificial reality -- are combined in a new training-development system' for the military. This system, developed by Quantum3D, includes a binocular head-mounted OLED display and head-leg-weapon motion-tracking systems, integrated with a vest-worn tactical visual computer. It runs under Windows XP and is compatible with the 802.11 a/b/g wireless networking standards. It will be used by the infantry to train soldiers, but it looks so complex that I would need intensive training just for using it. Read more for other details and an illustration of the full scary system."

Comments

Too bulky

[metlin]

After having worked with ubiquitous computing for a while, I can tell you one thing -- that thing is too big and has very bad affordances for it to take off big time.

On the other hand, look at something that folks like Thad Starner or Steve Mann come up with - better affordances.

(Mann actually had a different helmet design and changed to the Eye-tap design)

Re:Too bulky

[MoneyMan]

I think you're missing the point.

This isn't meant to "take off big time".

It's meant as a training device, specifically designed for military use. The military leads a VERY different life from you and I.

From the limited information (image) provided, the equipment used here is not significantly, if any, larger or heavier than standard equipment carried in the field by our military on a daily basis. In fact, it looks right inline with what is "humped" on any given day.

Also, this is meant as a training device, not an augmentation to the standard load. Training devices should be close to, if not a little bit heavier, the weight of what is carried in the field. Using Ultra-light equipment in training makes for exhausted soldiers in the field.

The HMD looks roughly equivalent to standard issue Night Vision Goggles. The battery pack is MUCH lighter than a standard rucksack (though that could easily remedied :-) ). The weapon looks a bit off. (Hopefully, it's balanced out to approximate a loaded M16).

The real questions are durability, usability, and cost.
Durability: When a soldier must dive for cover to avoid being "shot" by the virtual enemy, the HMD shouldn't shatter in his eyes. It should "simply" keep working, as designed.

Usability: Most military training equipment requires no more than an 8th grade education to operate. (Yes, that is the actual standard)
Soldiers don't have time in the middle of combat to try and remember which key sequence to push to get the weapon to fire. Press the button and BOOM.

Cost: This equipment looks to be aimed at small squad tactics. A couple of thousand dollars per soldier is not out of line for this type of equipment. Not budgeted dollars, but actual cost. Budget is a whole different ballgame.

--
mm

Re:Insert Another Quarter

[Doc Ruby]

There's a difference. "Virtual" reality is synthesized in the helmet, immersing the soldier's senses, responding "just like" reality to their reactions. "Artificial" reality is synthesized in a press conference, immersing the society's senses, responding "just like" reality to its reactions. The virtual one never exists materially, while the artificial one is thrown up all around us - but don't peek behind the scaffolds.

Re:platform?

[Greyfox]

The Military uses Windows because the 3 companies on the planet that can stand to do government contracts use Windows and are Microsoft partners. They get all the bids because no one else wants to do the paperwork necessary to do Military contracts. If you look at, say, EDS, it really appears that even for those companies military contracts are more trouble than they're actually worth.

Windows might have an edge over Linux for an immersive 3D environment simply because more video cards support it. Doing a good 3D environment with information overlays is a complex problem and most of the work that I've seen done has been UNIX/OpenGL based.

In the event of a crash you'll know you're running Windows. If your crappy linux video driver causes a kernel panic, it's just as easy to hit reset on Linux as it is on Windows. Especially if you use one of the journaled filesystems that have been built into the OS for the past 5 years or so now.

Anyway, I'd be surprised if the entire reason Windows was chosen over any other OS was due to the contractor's familiarity with it and possibly because they're a "Microsoft Partner." Whether it's the best, cheapest or most secure option they could have chosen probably didn't even enter the equasion.

The military's not as fickle as the public. If you build a Windows based PVR that has to cost $30 more than a Linux based PVR due to the Windows license, most people will go for the linux based one, all other features being equal. The military will choose and pay for whatever their contractor bids out for them, no questions asked.

an army of 17 year olds in Tora Bora?

[game kid]

I'm glad that hasn't happened ye--oh wait...

Why we don't use VR helmets today.

[mpesce]

Back in the early 1990s I started a company designing consumer VR ware for video games. We did lots of design work, got a few patents (hardware) on our work, then got a big contract from Sega to design key portions of their Virtua VR system - which was an HMD (head-mounted display, the real name for these things) that would plug into the Sega Genesis system to give you full immersion into the game playing world. We worked out all of the technical details, got the prices on the parts down to where it could sell for about $199 retail, and sat back and waited, and waited, and waited. Then Sega killed the project. We never heard from Sega why they killed the project. But, a year later, I heard a lecture from some researchers at SRI, who had done the testing for this helmet on Sega's behalf. Sega wouldn't allow them to release the results, so they did the tests again - on their own dime - and released them. And here's why you won't be wearing an HMD anytime soon:

1) Binocular dysphoria: when you wear a stereo HMD, your eyes/brain are getting one clue for depth perception (parallax) whereas in reality, there are six different cues for depth perception (focus plane, shadowing, etc) which your eye/brain uses to sort out what's going on in the z-plane of reality. While you're in the HMD, the brain adapts to this. Trouble is, when you take the HMD off, your brain is _still_ adapted to this. Now your brain eventually goes back to normal, but this takes some time, and it varies from individual to individual along a bell-curve distribution. Some people come back almost immediately. Others come back very slowly. That is an enormous problem if you go out and get into a car right away, or - as would be the case with the kids using the Virtua VR - getting onto a bike, walking down stairs, etc.

2) Torque: The Virtua VR was, like most early VR HMDs, closer to Darth Vader's helmet than to a pair of eyeglasses. That puts pressure onto the neck, and the neck can't really handle more weight than the head's already putting on it. Adding weight adds a lot of torque to the neck's movements, resulting in much more frequent neck strain.

3) Barfogenics: Although computers are more than fast enough to update images at 30 fps (even the Genesis could do this), the sensors which are used to calculate the yaw/pitch/roll of the head - in order to keep the image aligned with your proprioceptive sense of where your head is - generally don't work nearly as quickly. Most cheaper tracking systems, the kinds you'd find in consumer electronics, have some hysteresis associated with them. And that's bad, because if the image lags the movement by more than 50 msec, almost everyone will end up getting motion sickness. (Technically, this is known as "simulator sickness".) But the sensitivity of people to simulator sickness is also distributed on a bell-curve. Some folks get it very quickly, others don't get it at all.

So there you have it: Sega was told that they'd be selling a device that would cause kids to ruin their depth perception, would give them neck sprains, and would make them puke. Sega didn't even want to think about those kinds of lawsuits...

Today HMDs are lighter, but these fundamental issues remain, and remain unresolved. Yes, you can use optical tracking these days, because comupters are much faster with optical processing, but it's difficult to set up. HMDs are lighter, but they're still bad for your eye/brain. And until those problems get resolved, don't expect to be putting your head into an HMD.

Re:Why we don't use VR helmets today.

[mpesce]

Display size: NTSC analog broadcast is _essentially_ 320x240 resolution, so it's not really all that bad. Yeah, it sucks for FarCry, but for a scroller - and, in 1993, there were _only_ side scrollers on the consoles - it's more than adequate.

The tracking issue: I am _positive_ that an EyeToy or iSight could be used as the basis as a very potent tracking system. (I saw demos at SECA research a few years ago which essentially proved this point.) It can be done now, in R/T. I would imagine this is a good use of the PS3's Cell chip. :-)

The HMD issue: a unary focal plane is not a good thing to use for long periods of time - it makes your eyes weak, because the cornea isn't getting its regular exercise. And any long term use of an HMD produces eyestrain, stereo or not, high-resolution or low. It's a fundamental problem in the design (Robinett, 1992).

Re:Mod Article

[Lord_Dweomer]

No, he's the plague of Slashdot stories.

He gets stories submitted to Slashdot for the sole purpose of increasing his ad revenue. I recommend strongly against visiting his blog and contributing to his ad revenue.

Anti AD Revenue below;

[Anonymous Coward]

A Man-Wearable PC with an Artificial-Reality Helmet

In this short article, InformationWeek writes that "two sexy technologies that flamed out five years ago -- wearable computers and artificial reality -- are combined in a new training-development system" for the military. This system, developed by Quantum3D, includes a binocular head-mounted OLED display and head-leg-weapon motion-tracking systems, integrated with a vest-worn tactical visual computer. It runs under Windows XP and is compatible with the 802.11 a/b/g wireless networking standards. It will be used by the infantry to train soldiers, but it looks so complex that I would need intensive training just for using it. Read more...

Here is how InformationWeek describes the system.

Quantum3D Inc., which bills itself as a visual-computing vendor, has announced the availability of the Expedition, a combination wearable computer and artificial-reality gear. The Expedition's target market is developers of so-called immersive training. Their products, in turn, are used to train armed services personnel and emergency-response workers.

Among the components are a binocular head-mounted display and head-leg-weapon motion-tracking system by eMagin, and Quantum3D's Thermite tactical visual computer that's worn on a vest. Together, the components are designed to give the wearer accurate simulations of fabricated situations, including visuals, surround sound, and voice command.

http://www.primidi.com/images/wearable_expedition. jpg

The above illustration shows all the components of the Expedition. (Credit: Quantum3D Inc.) It comes from this datasheet (PDF format, 2 pages, 901 KB), which includes a description of the realtime visual system -- but please keep in mind that it comes from the company which wants to sell the Expedition.

The Quantum3D THERMITE Tactical Visual Computer features a man-wearable, light weight, small form factor, superrugged, sealed alloy enclosure with Mil-Spec connectors and conduction cooling that brings the performance and application compatibility of mobile PC workstations to deployed operations in hostile environments. The onboard NVIDIA GeForceFX Go 5200 Mobile GPU with 64 MB of frame buffer memory delivers industry-leading image quality and graphics performance.

The eMagin binocular OLED head mounted display (HMD) technology is used in Expedition's primary viewing device and provides a 40 degree diagonal field of view and 1.44 megapixels per 24-bit color SVGA microdisplay. With a 200:1 contrast ratio, patented OLED-on-silicon technology to enhance refresh rates, and on-chip signal processing and data buffering, the HMD provides bright, crisp, and flicker-free stereovision capability.

Quantum3D offers slightly more information in this press release, but doesn't provide a price for the Expedition system.

Sources: Jim Nash, InformationWeek, February 16, 2005; Quantum3D website

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Re:Replacing the Eye

[mollymoo]

Think about it, eyes have almost infinite resolution

No they don't. As far as optical systems go they are pretty poor; chromatic aberration, spherical aberration, they aren't even close to the theoretical performance for an optical system with an objective that size. Human eyes have of the order of 1 arcminute resolution.