I got a crazy idea

[lizerb]

Hey guys so I was at work one day and was thinking about the build I want to start eventually. I was thinking about the added helmet props in Halo Reach that don't do anything and thought that what if I got a nightvision monocular and attached it to the side of a helmet and had it feed to a little screen inside the helmet. Would it work at all? I just want to know if it is feasible for such an idea, its a little crazy.

 

[BiGHARYSCOTSMiN]

Well if you get a PVS-15 kind of deal going on in front, it's only the matter of mounting it and boom, nightvision.

now if you are talking about feeding video into the visor with night vision capabilities, I'm sure it's possible with everything possible here... but... it's going to be a wild ride.

We can all imagine things, I could totally see how possible your idea is but gathering the materials and making it mounted and working is the challenge.

Crazy? Eh... very cool concept certainly!

 

[Zaff]

It's not so much a matter of "is it possible" as much as "do you have that kind of money to spend." Theoretically with enough money you could have a full on-the-visor HUD, night vision/thermo/IR, even motion trackers. But I'd imagine not many (if any) of us here have that kind of dough laying around.

Is your idea possible on a more realistic budget? The primary issues would be power for both the camera and the viewscreen and mounting it (being able to see the screen and still see out the visor, unless you plan on relying solely on the screen). Even so, it will still come down to needing to drop a hefty chunk of change on the electronics with no true guarantee that it'll work.

 

[Redtail]

Here's the largest problem I can see running into.

Eye relief.

Screens aren't designed to be focused within an inch or so of the human eye, so even if you could have a really good setup, for really cheap, that worked beautifully, you'd still be boned for the fact that the screen is still way too close to your eye for you to see anything at all.

 

[RYNO 666]

Google glass? Maybe.

Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 2

 

[Carpathia]

This is not a new idea. It's been discussed many times during the 4 years I've been here. It all boils down to what's been said; money and feasibility. As Zaff said, it would cost quite a lot to build something like this, even using cheap components. Also, as Redtail said, there has always been the debate/issue of how close to your eyes the screen would have to be. People have even thrown out the possibility of using an OLED screen, but that also leads back to the issue of money. So, unless you've got some deep pockets, this will be a difficult thing to build.

 

[Fred617]

There is some promising tech coming soon to help with this dilemma. Check out what the Russians are doing.
http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2013-06/motorcycle-helmet-heads-display
A little smash-up of the tech, somebody develop a cool little app to run the whole interface and voila.

 

[Carpathia]

That's pretty cool. Still, I don't think I could bring myself to cannibalize a $2000 helmet with no guarantee that it will work properly in a Halo-style helmet. It, again, leads back to money.

 

[lizerb]

Yeah it was just a thought, and by no means do I have deep pockets at all. It was just a crazy idea for a costume. Would be really cool if it worked well.

 

[Zaff]

As Ryno mentioned (and I had a thread on the forums a while back discussing the possibilities) Google Glass might be a more simple method, although still very pricey (we're talking the $1500 rage at the least). You'd have your in-helmet camera, access to Google Maps/GPS, communications (texting, voice messaging, calls, etc.) and so on all in one unit. But alas, Glass doesn't offer night vision (that I'm aware of at least), which was the main focus of your concept.

 

[Fuzzy]

ive seen those little hd hand cams taken apart and placed inside things to do what i think your trying to.

get a small enough one and you can carefully seperate the lens from the lcd panel and add some wires to make it long enough. place lens inside prop-helmet piece on outside and mount the lens on ths inside.

years ago and i cant remember when but somebody on the dented helmet put the lcd screen on his foream panel and wired it to his bucket.

 

[Halcyon25]

Here's a cheaper option... One of my buddies took one of these, EyeClops Night Vision Infared Stealth Binoculars, and stuffed the screen and camera into a Stanmag (M4 mag) and used it at our CQB facility...

Give it a shot and let us know how it works.

Chris

 

[Redtail]

My recommendation if you're good with prisms and optics, would be to use some of the space inside the helmet to install the eyepiece from an older digital camcorder with a "night vision" overexposure or active-IR projector on a small lever that can lift up and away from your eye during optimal light conditions, but pivoted down over your eye, making use of the natural eye relief in the eye-stalk in the device by default. THe trick would be mounting the IR light source and CCD assembly on something that didn't look messy or accidental. The upside would be that you've got a built-in POV camera with a recording device ready to go.

 

[DeadzManWalking]

You could also try taking a look at these guys: Recon Instruments

They make huds for glasses, ski goggles, etc. It's really cool stuff, but no real night vision that I've seen.

http://www.reconinstruments.com/