Augmented reality enables helicopter flight in degraded visual environments

Thick clouds hang over the Tegernsee. The range of

a

sight is just a few hundred meters. Under normal circumstances, a helicopter would not be allowed to take off in such weather - the danger that the pilot would not be able to react in time to a construction crane, a power line or a mountain would be too great. But this does not stop Franz Viertler from entering the cockpit. Thanks to his head-mounted display - digital eye glasses attached to his head that display additional information - Viertler can detect hazards and navigate around them, even in thick fog.

The new technology is still in the research stage: the Alpine foothills are a projection, Viertler is not a pilot, but a TUM engineer and he is not really operating an actual helicopter, rather a flight simulator. Yet that is all you need to demonstrate the possibilities of augmented reality - a type of reality enhanced by additional information in digital form. The rotor purrs, the cockpit vibrates, clouds approach and obscure the view. Nevertheless, Viertler knows exactly where he is: the head-mounted display paves the way with green lines representing the outlines of mountains and houses. A red outline in between depicts wind turbines, construction cranes and high buildings.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2016-06-augmented-reality-enables-helicopter-flight.html#jCp