LCD HUD

[TexasAggie2011]

I originally posted this on Goku's electronic props thread, but didn't seem to get much of a response.

I've been really interested in some sort of interactive HUD for the inside of the helmet. Some thing that is natrually transparent to let you see through, but still put various read outs on.

The idea I had is sort of based off of this display they had setup in the innovations building at Epcot in Disney World. It was a little tiny flip down eye piece which showed a translucent windows desktop and could be controlled either by voice or with a text messaging sized controller. The screen itself was see through and basically shoed a small row of file folder icons and could bring up stuff like weatherbug, video, internet, etc.

I've searched around the net for this view screen and have yet to find it. My guess is it was probably scrapped for being too expensive, but if a view screen along the lines of that one was reproducible, it wouldn't seem impossible to say, rig up a mini computer into the back compartment with a small power supply, an input device, and have it running a custom linux GUI that allowed some degree of user interface with the HUD. I was thinking, as Goku mentioned in his thread, adding in some sort of temperature display for the outside and inside of the suit, fan controllers, and possibly a faux-shield meter, motion tracker, etc. You know, the normal stuff you'd see in game.

I think its pretty doable seeing as someone built a proxy/firewall using a smoothwall distro of linux and this little custom computer shown here:

http://www.michaelsoft.info/other/computers/nacelle/

So I think the programming portion would be easily doable but I'm still wondering what could be used for the display.

sorry if this is a bit incoherent. i've been up for about 32 hours workign on some transfer course assignments and tryign to finish up some work on one of my helmets.

if anyone has any ideas as to how to make an enclosed HUD work, or sees any flaws in my ideas with the computer system in the backpack or any concept of this project, let me know.

 

[Skippster86]

short from carrying a car battery what would you use to power the computer? Also the HUD would be difficult to do within that small of a space (from the eye to the visor) unless the image is somehow projected onto the visor or something along those lines.

 

[centerside]

if you say it's doable then there's no harm in trying it though it wont be cheap.

What I'm thinking is making a projector and it goes near the mouth peice and projects to the back of the visor. I have no Idea if they have a small projector that could fit but if anyone does.........

 

[Gokussj5okazu]

Sorry if I didn't seem interested in it when you originally posted about this, I just had alot of other projects to hammer out first.

I think the best bet with this would be a normal old LCD screen, maybe 3.5". Take out the backing, and just adhere the translucent ink screen to the visor. Then it's just a matter of controlling it using a PIC, which you can program to do absolutely anything. If anyone wants links about this path, just let me know, I have the information floating around, just no time.

 

[TexasAggie2011]

Hey Goku its no problem, I understand. I'd be interested in seeing these files to get some ideas. I've actually been toying around with the LCD from an old phone i had. so far form what I've learned is the black and white screen becomes nearly unreadable once the opaque backing is peeled off the back in order to see through. even with it off, theres still a substantial amount of color distortion from the glass. it it was possible to replace this opaque backing with a semi translucent one, (ie one way glass) which would allow ambient light to pass through the plate but black and reflect monochromatic lighting, it might be possible to then see the text or symbols with just the ambient lighting of a room contrasting against the reflected monochromatic color form the LCD.


to your reply Skippster, I was figuring something like the lithium ion batteries used to power portable DVD players and such could possibly work to supply the power to this thing. Albeit, you'd probably have to step up the voltage and use more than one power pack seeing as instead of running a display screen, and computer to read the discs, you're powering the display and a larger computer.

and centerside, the projector doesn't sound like a bad idea. i'm not sure if they make projectors that small, but its worth looking into

 

[bevbor]

Maybe cheaper soluiton is to use red LED woth two servos and microcontroller that sends random moving commands to those servos?

 

[TexasAggie2011]

Maybe cheaper soluiton is to use red LED woth two servos and microcontroller that sends random moving commands to those servos?

I'm a little confused. do you mean this setup could be used for a mini projector?

 

[tlither]

Not sure where I found it but I have a link somewhere to HUDs for motorcycles, racing, etc. Basically, it shows speed, rpm, etc. They can even custom make you one with the input you want (from what I remember). Probably can't do a Halo themed one but you could get the basic setup from them. I'll look for the link and post when I find it if I have the time.

 

[Zenzeigan]

short from carrying a car battery what would you use to power the computer? Also the HUD would be difficult to do within that small of a space (from the eye to the visor) unless the image is somehow projected onto the visor or something along those lines.

car battery?

if the screens going to be that small youre not going to need a car battery, ever seen a blackberry?, its a computer phone, it can practically do everything a computer can and its the size of a mobile phone, no need to carry car batterys round with you these days

 

[tlither]

OK. Found a couple of links to HUDs. Here they are

SportVue - HUD

Veypor

Hopefully these will help or at least give you some idea of what is possible.

 

[TexasAggie2011]

Thanks tlither, I came across this site a couple days ago. seemed like the right choice to see if they can do some custom work, however, most of their products are HMD's (head mounted displays). If you look closely in some of the pictures like this one:

http://www.veypor.com/images/MC1-Rider-2.jpg

you can see that little stick like thing on the front of his helmet covering a tiny portion of his face shield is the display unit. Unless theres a way to significantly downsize the hardware for this thing, it would look pretty silly for Mc to be walking around with it hanging in the middle of his face shield.

If it was able to be downsized enough, maybe it would be possible to model a recess into the overhanging visor of the helmet and have it angled to project the image onto the outside of the face shield.

about right here:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v111/sgt...ume_helmet3.jpg

 

[centerside]

The second link of the HUD (Veypor) is so cool, but it's so big for displaying just one small item.

 

[Zeshan02]

what item should i buy for the hud because i was thinking for putting spy camera with and lcd

 

[Tater Mane]

what should i buy and how much would it cost

What?

 

[Newspartancreator]

I can't find the video, but a while back some kids had a vid on youtube, they bought a $65.00 sony handy cam from a pawn shop,but the 3"x4" screen was bad. So they broke the unit down, extended some wiring, and made a camera mount for their paint ball gun, and used the view finder screen to make a HUD. It was pretty cool, it fit into a small back pack (main unit), Hud was in the helmet, and camera parts were on the rifle, in a plastic tube. They used it to aim around corners, it even zoomed in on the targets... Try looking into that idea...

 

[ImaGonnaGetYou]

*snip*

Rocket Launcher zoom anyone?

Zoom without a scope. Who could'a thunk it?

 

[oggers408]

http://technabob.com/blog/2007/09/28/see-t...-shine-through/
thats a link to lcd clear screened clocks. may be a possible solution?

 

[Damorian]

I attempted something similar to this and it somewhat worked out. I took a portable dvd player and ripped it apart and put the screen in a cardboard helmet (7" screen about 6" away from my face). Then I mounted an IR modified usb webcam to the side of the helmet and plugged both those into an eee pc that was in a backpack. Long story short I had a night vision helmet that could have a hud and I could play games on... bad thing about it though was you had to close one eye or else you'd get a headache from constantly having your eyes crossed because the screen was so close. I know this isn't exactly what you were talking about but it's pretty close. It sounds very doable and would be EXTREMELY cool if you pulled it off. Normally I'd post pics of my setup but I'm on vacation and won't be home for a bit.

 

[Garland]

I don't think they they'll be commercially available until next year, but a company developed a special projector roughly the size of a coin, and the article said they were going to start putting them in cellphones.

 

[Killdnaction]

Not sure if this has been posted, but would be kinda cool for a HUD.