By B.C. Kessner
BAE Systems’ Q-Sight helmet display products were originally designed for pilots, yet when the first contract went to the United Kingdom recently for helicopter door gunners, thoughts of additional applications soon materialized, company executives said last week.
“We’re seeing lots of interesting applications,” John Nix, BAE’s vice president for international business development, said during a video teleconference press briefing. “Some of them we dream up, but quite frankly it tends to be the end user that comes up with some creative ideas on how to use this human machine interface–that’s really what it is–to any sensor.”
Q-sight is a lightweight device that clips on to standard helmets and moves light via holographic waveguides to a miniature display in front of the eye. By injecting the see- through image right into the combiner lens (display), it eliminates the need for a series of bulky lenses, mirrors and surfaces found in traditional systems that are heavy and cause center-of-gravity issues when attached to a helmet.
“The hologram recreates the image inside that combiner and then that image is focused to infinity, overlaying the real world, and it doesn’t require the user to change focus,” Nix said. “This is important because it’s transmissive–you can see through it–you don’t want to make aviator or crew member change focus from outside to inside the combiner back to outside the cockpit,” he added.
In the inaugural order last month, the U.K. Ministry of Defence (MoD) ordered 12 helmet mounted displays for Lynx Mk 8 helicopters in an application tied to thermal weapons sights for crewmen to designate and engage targets (Defense Daily, Sept.11). The thermal sight is connected via cable to a video conversion and control unit and optional power pack, then directly up to the monocular Q-sight display, Nix said. Deliveries will begin in May 2010.
The MoD discovered that it had a great application for the door gunners because when they were engaging targets with the gun, as soon as they pulled the trigger and the muzzle flashed, it shut down their night vision goggles and they lost sight of the target.
“Not only is that inconvenient for being able to hit targets, when you’re trying to operate in a minimum collateral damage environment it really limits your ability to stay on target and effectively engage the target,” Nix added.
Smoke, dust, debris and fog also present problems for night vision goggles. Running a cable from a thermal sight to Q-Sight now gives the gunner access to thermal or night vision images and the choice to leverage what works best in a given situation.
“So now that we’ve gone down that path, folks are [asking] why can’t we do the same thing in a ground vehicle?” Nix said.
At the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) annual meeting this week, the company is demonstrating some potential new Q-Sight applications.
“Instead of having like what you’ll see at AUSA–a gimbaled thermal device that can be slewed for a ground vehicle–and tying it to a monitor that’s either head-down or right in front of the driver but you can’t see through it, you can just throw it up into a Q-Sight and let the driver have that kind of capability in a vehicle,” Nix said.
Similarly, Q-Sight could be used to slew and a sight remote weapons system from inside any armored vehicle, reducing a soldier’s exposure in high threat environments.
Q-Sight’s main features are its light weight, low cost, and minimal impact on aircraft integration because it requires only a power source and a link to the image generator. Compared to previous systems, it provides superior pilot comfort due to its minimal impact on the helmet’s center of gravity. Currently, the system weighs less than 300 grams, with a production target of 150 grams.
Q-Sight also allows for seamless transition between good and poor visibility conditions as well as between day and night operations.
Nix, a former Army aviator, said this introduces a new concept because historically during daytime flying helicopter pilots did not have any symbology in the head-up eyes-out mode. If they were operating in a degraded environment caused by dust, smoke, fog, or any other low-visibility condition, they often had to go with just the naked eyeball. During day/night transitions, there is a period when it is not quite dark enough for the night vision goggles and not quite light enough to work unaided, so aviators constantly flipped the goggles down and up during that period.
With Q-Sight, aviators can have symbology in the daytime, and then simply flip the goggles down on top of the lens, switching into night vision mode without needing to make further adjustments.
The system’s modular design allows for the addition of new mission specific capabilities, retrofits and upgrades. Binocular solutions are also available to benefit sensor overlay views.
The company is looking to expand Q-Sight’s capabilities to include wider fields of view (production target is 40-degrees), color displays, possibly a curved surface, and additional conformal symbology to enhance situational awareness for aircrew members, Nix said. It will also be capable of displaying video imagery from any external sensor and could be used with future enhanced visual systems.
With Q-Sight, you get significantly enhanced situational awareness,” Nix said. “You get to keep your head up, and your eyes out while you’re searching for reference points in brownout landings, whiteout landings…and very dark nights. “It provides that head-up eyes-out capability so you don’t have to come back into the cockpit,” he added. n