If you’ve ever seen deep sea divers, you know that they wear diving helmets as a means to protect themselves, like in the event they lose consciousness in which breathable air via oxygen tanks can continue to be delivered into the helmet until the diver is rescued. However the US Navy has decided that these diving helmets could be even more futuristic and hi-tech.
So much so that they have started to develop hi-tech diving helmets that will come with a built-in heads up display (HUD). For those unfamiliar with HUDs, these displays can sometimes be found in cars and video games where information will be overlaid on top of what the person is actually seeing. For cars, HUDs could display things like maps, driving speed, and so on.
In the case of these diving helmets, the HUD will provide “real-time visual display of everything from sector sonar (real-time topside view of the diver’s location and dive site), text messages, diagrams, photographs and even augmented reality videos.” The US Navy thinks that by giving them this information, it could lead to more effective missions.
“Having real-time operational data enables them to be more effective and safe in their missions — providing expanded situational awareness and increased accuracy in navigating to a target such as a ship, downed aircraft, or other objects of interest.” That being said, it seems that development is still in its early stages and the helmet is still being prototyped, but it is now ready to move on to being tested in real underwater tests scenarios.
Filed in . Read more about Augmented Reality (AR) and US navy.