The Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida issued a requirement in mid-1999 for head mounted displays for use in helicopters. The only problem is that the type of systems needed didn't exist at the time. Tom Scott and Kenneth Geyer, owners of Virtual Reality Source, which engineered and integrated virtual reality systems, sought to design a system that would fulfill this requirement by engineering the system from the ground up.
After selling Virtual Reality Source, Geyer and Scott founded Liteye in January of 2000. And with Pensacola Naval Air Station as their first customer, the Centennial, Colorado-based Liteye has continued to grow at a steady clip by designing and building head- and helmet-mounted displays (HMDs) that are used in industrial and military applications throughout the world.
The HMDs consist of a small, over-the-eye monitor mounted to an adjustable band worn around the head or helmet displaying Internet images, e-mail, maps, written instructions and any other information that can be stored or downloaded on a computer or PDA.
But unlike a regular monitor, the HMD utilizes "augmented reality" which means the transmitted data displays transparently and the user can see through the image while operating within a hands-free environment. "The image is laid over your view of the real world," explained Geyer. "Picture your Windows desktop floating around in space, but instead of staring at a monitor, you're looking through an optic that projects that picture over your view."
The Liteye HMD system is generally hardwired to a PDA or computer worn by the user. Hardwiring is necessary due to the fact that wireless transmission requires larger power sources, adding substantial weight and bulk to both the computer and the HMD. There are also security issues associated with wireless transmission. "Most people don't want to send their information wirelessly because they want to be assured that their signal won't be picked up or disrupted," explained Geyer.
In 2004, Liteye management determined that they were ready to make improvements in the systems' optics and they required additional funding to do so. In the fall of that year, Liteye submitted an application to the Center for Commercialization of Advanced Technology (CCAT).
CCAT provided Liteye with a market study and a product development award of $75,000 in early 2005. The award was made to support the improvement of the HMD's optics including the engineering of a light-weight plastic lens to replace the system's glass lens (without losing clarity) and to provide the lens with additional image color correction. "We were able to maintain the advantages of a glass prism optic, but we were able to do it in plastic, which has never been done," said Geyer. "This brought the weight down, but we can still sustain the distortion-free aspects of the additional color correction."
The CCAT market study, completed in December 2005, provided direction by suggesting an immediate investment in an optics consultant to make the improvements on the system rather than to develop the technology themselves. This saved the company time in that the improvement project was completed in six to seven months instead of the anticipated 24 months. The plastic optic is expected to be on the market in the second quarter of 2007.
Even while the new optics are under development, military customers have been buying the current version by the dozens. Customers now include the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, German Army, and, most recently, the Japanese Self-Defense Forces.
The U.S. Navy uses the Liteye systems for viewing schematics during equipment repair, maintenance and medical triage applications, as does the U.S. Army, who also uses the HMDs for command and control applications.
In addition, the augmented technology offered by Liteye's HMD system can play an important role on the battlefield. "Non-see-through always inhibits a soldiers view and is always something to deal with," said Geyer. "You could picture the soldier staring out on the battlefield through his see-through HMD and having the enemy positions highlighted in red. Just like a video game, but for real. Having his threats laid out this way would give him a major advantage."
For more information, please contact:
Tom Sheffer, CCAT Program Director
SDSU Research Foundation
E-mail: tsheffer@foundation.sdsu.edu
Phone: (619) 594-4135 / Fax: (619) 594-5774