Helmet-mounted displays

Why 2nd Camera in front of pilot

My thought would be in case the HMDS or helmet cam goes tango uniform, the dashboard feed can be displayed in the main tactical display.

Or perhaps even on the helmet display as well?
Of course that in such situation the night vision would only be seen/projected when the pilot is looking towards the front of the aircraft.

Or perhaps even on the helmet display as well?

[cough] HMDS [/cough]

ARF ARF ARF (Air Refuelling) - F-35B/C Canopy Bow Problemo….: viewtopic.php?f=62&t=16223&p=284557&hilit=Latency#p284557

JSF program drops test phase to protect schedule
26 Jan 2015 Bill Sweetman [aka BillyBobBoySweetiePie] AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/FEBRUARY 2-15, 2015

"...“Latency, jitter, etc. are well behind us with hardware and software improvements incorporated into Gen-2 with LRIP 5. We are now finishing up development of Gen-3 and are in qualification testing,” says Robert McKillip, senior director for HMD programs at Rockwell Collins.

“Gen-3 involves a lot of little things that improve performance and producibility,” he says. A major change is to use two new Intevac ISIE-11 night-vision cameras: one on the helmet and one on the aircraft glareshield looking forward. The ISIE-11 has a larger aperture and higher resolution, sensitivity and speed than the ISIE-10 on the Gen-2 helmet.

Originally just a simple forward-looking day sensor, the aircraft-mounted camera now performs several key functions in the Gen-3 system: helping to track the pilot’s head, aligning the helmet display and improving visibility while flying at night.

Replacing the conventional head-up display, the F-35 HMD projects stabilized flight symbology and sensor imagery onto the pilot’s visor. With Gen-3, imagery from both the forward and helmet ISIE-11 cameras is used to minimize obstruction of the pilot’s night vision by the canopy bow.

“We fuse the imagery and eliminate most of the bow frame,” says McKillip. This is critical during hose-and-drogue refueling at night in the F-35B and Navy F-35C variants, as it enables the pilot “to see the probe go into the basket,” he says. Gen-3 adds a light-emitting diode (LED) and camera to the front of the helmet and back of the forward camera. The sensors optically track the LEDs to augment head-tracking and automate the calibration of display alignment.

Three methods of tracking head motion are used. The main one is magnetic, using a sensor mounted on top of the ejection seat, but alignment can shift over time so long-term optical- tracking has been added to keep the helmet aligned.

An inertial measurement unit (IMU) also is installed in the helmet to mitigate symbology jitter caused by aircraft buffet. “It is a trade between twitchiness and damping. When the IMU senses higher buffet, symbology is more heavily damped. We now use a different trade that errs on the side or readability.”

A third function of the forward camera is to enable the pilot to quickly perform an end-to end check of the Gen-3 helmet using the boresight reticle unit. “This gives the pilot visual feedback on alignment. It’s a go/no-go test that the helmet is aligned,” McKillip explains...."

Source: https://archive.org/stream/Aviation_Wee ... 5_djvu.txt

F-35 Test Pilots Will Begin Flying “Gen” Helmet Display
08 Feb 2014 Bill Carey

"...Integrated Night Imagery
F-35s will have two night-vision cameras. A canopy bow in the jet obstructs the helmet camera, which is positioned above the pilot’s eye level on the HMDS. A second, dashboard-mounted camera is used in combination with the first; the imagery from both cameras is fused for display to the pilot...."

Source: https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news ... et-display

Or perhaps even on the helmet display as well?

[cough] HMDS [/cough]

[cough] KISS rule... [/cough]

Thanks for the info spazsinbad

Seems to me AVIONICS TODAY is a great source for F-35 info but they do make mistakes by whomever author/editor....

F-35: Under the Helmet of the World’s Most Advanced Fighter
24 Aug 2018 Nick Zazulia

"...The price tag is high, [$400,000 which includes a lot more than just the helmet] but “helmet” doesn’t really do the HMDS justice. The system consists of a number of components, such as a virtual HUD, beyond just the helmet to help save weight by replacing analogous systems on other jets. It also provides some unique and groundbreaking functionality — Rockwell Collins fellow and mastermind behind the HMDS Bob Foote said it is the first aircraft primary flight display that is worn by the pilot.

Each carbon-fiber helmet is 3D-milled to custom fit each pilot. [PLANE RONG as has been pointed out by quite a few posts in this thread - the HELMET LINER is so fitted to a standard size helmet which is NOT FREAKIN' MILLED!] Fit data is stored so replacements can be crafted to order. The custom fit ensures that alignment of the pilots' eyes and helmet displays is precise, which allows pilots greater ability to see the display during high-G maneuvers, Foote said.

That alignment is particularly important in the F-35 because so much crucial data is provided to the pilot on the helmet’s display. Not least of which is the technology that lets pilots “see through the plane,” in the words of Elbit America Senior Director of Communications Rod Gibbons.

The helmet uses a tracker to tell where the pilot is looking at any given time, then, working with the Distributed Aperture System (DAS)’s 360-degree real-time video, augments the vision in both eyes (as opposed to just one, thanks to pilot feedback) with additional information, even if the pilot isn’t looking out the cockpit’s windshield.

Using the same tracker, pilots can essentially aim their weapons just by looking at a target. [Without an explanation how this occurs I say BULLDUST but it is a common incorrect meme unless someone explains otherwise] A built-in, visor-projected night vision system without the need for separate goggles. And continuous iteration and stripping out weight, combined with the balance provided by custom-fitting, means the helmet is light and balanced enough to help combat fatigue, which is important for long cockpit sessions that will involve high-G flying.... [then OLDE wunderbar]

...Another issue involved latency in the tracker. Eliminating as much latency as possible is always a concern for something that is going to be ever-present in pilots’ vision so they can receive visual data and react. Air-to-surface gun strafing performance, in particular, was not meeting requirements thanks to latency with the helmet tracker, according to Lemons.

“We started out with a purely magnetic based tracker that just didn't have the performance we needed to meet our requirements on helmet line-of-sight accuracy for strafing,” Lemons said. “The change that was made was to put an optical-magnetic hybrid tracker into the aircraft, sort of blending those two together along with getting some changes into the helmet itself by actually applying an inertial measurement unit on the helmets to improve the data we had on position and rates of the helmets so we can get a predicted line of sight faster with more accuracy.”

With those issues ironed out, Rockwell’s Ray said pilots are “ready to make it a little bit more customizable when they get on the aircraft; they want to move symbology here and there.” Nothing is imminent on that front, but a few years down the line, in future-generation helmets, he said Rockwell and Elbit are definitely considering ways to allow additional customization as one of the improvements.

Beyond that, both Lockheed and the military are always focused on keeping weight down, cutting costs and more processing power. Combining and presenting all the data an F-35 generates to a pilot in a timely manner takes a powerful processor, and Foote said that task is only going to get more demanding...."

Source: https://www.aviationtoday.com/2018/08/2 ... d-fighter/

Navy’s F-35 Helmet Problem Fixed With TV Technology

A burst of green light in F-35 helmets that was plaguing Navy pilots landing their aircraft at night has been solved using a component found in many consumer televisions.

The so-called “green glow issue” occurred when Navy pilots at sea were landing on aircraft carriers in blackout conditions, said Joe F. Ray, marketing manager for airborne government systems at Rockwell Collins.

“When there was a sudden light source, the display couldn’t react appropriately and you would get this green glow flash,” he said. “Not the safest thing for a pilot landing on a moving runway.”

The helmets use LCD (liquid crystal display) technology, which uses backlight to create images. The displays are not 100 percent opaque, so it can’t block out all the light. That resulted in a green glow bleeding from the edges, said Josh Rivera, a systems engineer at Rockwell Collins.

Rockwell Collins and its partner in the F-35 helmet program Elbit Systems of America, had already focused on organic LED (light emitting diode), a relatively new technology found in televisions. It did not exist when the helmets were first being designed at the outset of the F-35 program.

The main feature of organic LED is that a series of pixels light up when it receives an electric current. Light only comes on when it is needed. “You are only getting the visual information and the visual cues that are required in the display,” Ray said.

As a new technology, it won’t be obsolete for quite some time. It’s also lighter and uses less power, he said. As a bonus, it allows the icons in the heads-up display to have more color. Current models are the typical monochromatic green.

“So it’s a really good technology that seemed like a no-brainer for everyone,” Ray said. “It was just a matter of working it through the wickets with the” joint program office and prime contractor Lockheed Martin, he said.

Initial operating capability for the upgrade is expected in February 2019, when newly issued helmets will all come with the fix. The Navy will also begin to bring in old helmets for the upgrades.

As for Air Force and Marine Corps pilots, the green glow problem has not been as big an issue because they don’t fly in the same blackout conditions. However, when their helmets come in for repairs, they will receive the upgrades, Ray said.

http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/ ... technology

Great find 'zerion' but these sort of misunderstandings are just too silly for quoting from numnuts by authors wot should know better. "...“Not the safest thing for a pilot landing on a moving runway.”..." It ain't a runway. At least call it a DECK.

MORE NUMNUTTERY: "...As for Air Force and Marine Corps pilots, the green glow problem has not been as big an issue because they don’t fly in the same blackout conditions...." OH YEAH?! So USMC pilots NOT FLYING NOT the F-35C NOR the F-35B at NIGHT AT SEA HAVE SPECIAL VISION POWERS in these 'blackout' conditions? I'm going to sit in the corner & CRY!

Why use ersatz? CGI? I dunno: http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/ ... ion-4.ashx

The USMC will not be flying the C at Sea until after the new OLED HMDS comes out so that is a non-starter and the B makes a slow approach to the ship so the green-glow does not affect them in the same way as a C pilot as it comes in at close to 200mph.

The USMC will not be flying the C at Sea until after the new OLED HMDS comes out so that is a non-starter and the B makes a slow approach to the ship so the green-glow does not affect them in the same way as a C pilot as it comes in at close to 200mph.

However I take issue with the RAY quote from the article: "has not" is used so that is past tense. I can dig up many quotes about F-35B pilots flying at night NOT using HMDS night vision because of this issue, including in the 'MoD in a MUDDLE' thread about test pilots night flying recently aboard CVF without it.

Perhaps your idea of the difference between an F-35B and an F-35C night approach makes sense to you but NOT to me. I can recall the F-35B LHA video with test pilot pulling off a landing despite being bedazzled by a malfunction. 145 Knots is the maximum allowable F-35C approach speed at Optimum Angle of Attack which is 167 mph (things break above that speed upon the deck). Close but no cigar. Speed is not so much a factor as the 'view', especially of the IFLOLS, also made clear in at least one article quote. Deck Landing Lights may be different CVN/LHA however it is still BLACK out there.

Amid ‘green glow’ concerns, another issue has emerged for pilots flying the F-35 at night
12 Jun 2019 David B. Larter

"WASHINGTON — Engineers and pilots continue to struggle with operating the F-35 jet in low-light conditions, with a new issue emerging that obstructs the horizon line for pilots when flying at night with below-average levels of starlight, according to documents exclusively obtained by Defense News. The issue, which affects the feed from the night vision camera, appears to the pilot as wonky horizontal lines, or striations, in the night vision display, obscuring the horizon.

“During shore-based testing in overcast starlight conditions, [helmet-mounted display] symbology brightness and video contrast at the max settings and while adjusting video brightness, the pilots were unable to generate a reliable image of the horizon at any time, or to display a scene with texturing critical for peripheral motion cues,” the government document reads.

Fixing the glitch, which was first reported in November 2017, is a top priority for the U.S. Marine Corps, according to the documents. The issue is listed as a category 1 deficiency in the documents and is defined as something that “critically restricts the combat readiness capabilities of the using organization.” In this scale, category 1 represents the most serious type of deficiency. The issue affects all versions of the F-35, the documents point out. [THEN info on THE FIX anticipated with the OLED tech in new 'improved Gen III helmet' just now starting to be fielded]…

…Workarounds and solutions
A source familiar with the program and the efforts to fix its deficiencies said that solving the green glow issue may, in fact, improve the night vision issue because the display settings will be better optimized for the night vision camera feed.

“If you imagine you have a camera that doesn’t have the contrast that you would really love to have and you have the green glow, the two together don’t make you happy," the source said. "If you take the green glow away and you change the contrast on the camera, the two of them together start looking a lot better.

“We’ll need to wait and see because the green glow was a big driver in making that [night vision camera] objectionable. So I’m not trying to exonerate the camera. What I’m saying is I don’t think we had the system to be able to differentiate: Is it the camera or the green glow that was causing the problem?"

Issues with low-light operations have pushed the Navy to only allow experienced pilots to fly the F-35 in conditions that elicit the green glow issue. For now, if the conditions for green glow obstruction are in play, only pilots with 50 or more night carrier landings can fly the plane [at night?]….

...Locke [Cmdr. Tommy Locke of the Navy’s strike fighter squadron] also said OLED technology was going to make a big difference. “It reduces the green glow; there’s a much crisper picture that will allow us to avoid the disorientation with the green glow,” he said."

Source: https://www.defensenews.com/smr/hidden- ... -at-night/

lol.. This has to be the most publicly talked about "unreported" issue in the list.

For fffff sake, the new OLED HMDS replacements are already in production.

Are these lines the issue? If so then they are caused by resolution difference issues. This is why 80s video looks so horrible on our newer higher resolution displays. When you take an image that is scanning at ~400 vertical lines and fill a display at 800 or more vertical lines it no longer looks as good. You can see the horizontal lines like looking through a window blind. To fix this they will need to change display resolution to match the camera or increase the camera resolution to match what the display is using. If they do this then the resulting image will be much better.

I believe those are the striations; you can also see them on the basket.

The problem has shown up in low light conditions (not what you see in the pic above). A representative description is ‘starlight, overcast, at sea’ (about as dark as it gets).

That lux/wx combination is also very hard on conventional image intensifiers (nvgs); doesn’t surprise me that adjustments to the newer technology have been required. In spite of extensive night ops w nvgs (...like 8 years) we didn’t bring jets aboard the amphibs using nvgs until the an/avs-9s showed up, and there were still some nights that they were really not doing much for you until you got very near that big metal thing you were trying to land on.