Shaman

ODG augmented reality headset partners with FedEx Express - Business Insider

ODG, a company based in San Francisco that makes smart eyewear, is now putting its optics technology inside an oxygen mask for pilots.
It will test this technology with FedEx Express, a cargo airline.
It's the latest sign that the action in augmented reality is in the enterprise, as mainstream consumer smartglasses are years away.
For the past few years, augmented reality companies have set their sights on the larger consumer market, as big tech companies like Microsoft, Facebook, and Apple chase what they believe to be the next big platform.

But now, the companies making augmented reality-powered smart eyewear are changing course: They're now going after selling to big businesses, as it now looks like it could be a few years before the devices are small and light enough for mainstream use.

One great example of this shift towards businesses is ODG, a San Francisco-based company that has gotten a lot of attention for its Android-based smartglasses.

ODG spent most of 2017 angling its R-9 glasses for consumers and developers. The glasses were able to show vivid images inside its lenses, putting similar hardware to a tablet on your head to project digital imagery over the real world.

Now, ODG is taking its optical technology and integrating it with the oxygen masks worn by pilots, it announced on Wednesday. It looks like a step beyond Google Glass, integrating the headgear with a plane's onboard systems.

"There's a lot of attention on augmented reality, whether it's tablets and phones, heads-up-displays or headworn, like us, or [Microsoft] Hololens, or the hype around Magic Leap," ODG COO Pete Jameson told Business Insider. "But this is technology integrated into a vertical industry with an immediate impact on lives."

ODG calls its smart oxygen mask system "SAVED," an acronym standing for "'Smoke Assured Vision Enhanced Display," and announced its first partner on Wednesday: FedEx Express, the cargo airline owned by Fedex.

The idea is that you can put advanced smart optics inside an oxygen mask. And then, if the cockpit were ever to fill up with smoke in an emergency situation, the pilot would be able to see the feed from cameras outside the plane and other critical cockpit displays inside their helmet. It's a safety feature.

One big difference with a product like this, versus its consumer counterparts, is that aviation is a highly regulated industry. ODG will work with FedEx to receive approval from the Federal Aviation Administration over the next year, and tweak the technology further so that pilots both like and appreciate the experience. FedEx Express needs the mask to work with big jets, like the Boeing 777 and the Boeing 747.

odg r 8 smart glasses
ODG
The announcement underscores a sea change in the young augmented reality industry. Companies like ODG have a lot of expertise in optics and displays, and are even able to integrate smartphone parts and their proprietary technology to make working smartglasses.

But the smartglasses out there right now aren't poised to cross over to mainstream consumers at the moment, so smaller companies, like ODG have refocused on taking their technology and selling it to other businesses, where style or weight are less of a concern.

"It's an example that headworn [computers] are going to start to serve multiple industry apps, users, and verticals," Jameson said.

But if ODG's optics can handle the stresses of a smoke-filled cockpit, they can probably handle whatever people might be doing on their smartglasses in five or ten years.

cargofast

All I got from that, is that we're getting the 747.

SaltyDog

https://www.visionsafe.com/product.html

We use this in all our aircraft today. Much lower tech, but very effective

Lose camera feed or many other malfunction possibilities in a battery fire on cargo aircraft you have a physical clear view of cockpit and to the outside world where your flying the jet.

Busdrivr

Let's see... 2 seconds to put on an oxygen mask or 5
minutes to figure out then wrestle with the inflatable EVAS, while on fire?

Hrkdrivr

Very cool idea. Logical extension of Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality glasses.

I got to try the EVAS at NBAA some years ago. Lower-tech but very effective, in a simulator anyway. Probably cheaper than AR too.

In any case, I suspect we'll see neither in Part 121 ops because of the cost/benefit analysis of doing nothing.

https://www.visionsafe.com/product.html

***Edit...Salty beat me to it!***

The Walrus

How did they fill the sim with smoke?

Hrkdrivr

Something like a concert smoke machine. Very thick smoke...almost truly couldn't see your hand in front of your face in full daylight. Supposedly safe to breathe, but you're wearing a mask and smoke goggles too. It did an amazing job showing me how SOL you would be with bad smoke in the cockpit.

I know Flight Safety uses smoke generators in some sims to set up emergencies. They used to at least. Don't know if they have/train EVAS along with it.

It was a no-motion cockpit simulator, but controls/instruments worked and you could see through the windscreen well enough to land, certainly better than you could with just smoke goggles.

SaltyDog

Less than 60 -70 seconds done with training to full deployment. In documented cases of fire, plenty of time if accomplished at first indication of smoke or fire.

Will take that over a test product not deployed. Sometimes simple saves lives. If this more sophisticated technology works out, terrific, but as I fly today, have a much better chance with this product already proven and onboard each aircraft I fly.
YMMV

Hrkdrivr

I see this being integrated into super-high-performance drone fighters that can pull Gs humans can't survive.

Fit the drone with cameras/sensors for full hemispheric vision and threat detection..."fly" from a van in Idian Springs while killing stuff anywhere in the world.

Like the swarm scene in Guardians of the Galaxy II.

Busdrivr

Yes, with training. What if that training was 18 months ago?