Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Image superposition by optical means – Operator body-mounted heads-up display
Patent
1996-03-28
1999-12-28
Mengistu, Amare
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Image superposition by optical means
Operator body-mounted heads-up display
349 11, 2430, G09G 500
Patent
active
060087803
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to diver communication equipment.
Diver communication equipment has been proposed in patent specification U.S. Pat. No. 5,079,753 in which the diver's helmet was provided with a television camera, a light and a monitor. The monitor display could be viewed by the diver through an optical arrangement, including prisms, which arrangement could be folded out of the diver's view when not required. The optical arrangement obscured the diver's normal view when it was in use. The output from the camera could not be viewed by the diver but was passed to topside for viewing by diver support personnel. The information passed to the diver consisted of a sonar polar image derived from a sonar transducer hanging subsea from the diver support vessel. The output from the camera was used to observe the task faced by the diver.
Scuba diver communication equipment has been proposed in patent specification U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,818 in which a diver's mask was provided with an LED and the image from the LED was transmitted to the diver's eye by an optical system consisting of two plain mirrors. This did not obstruct the diver's vision along his normal straight-ahead direction. However, the optical system consisting of the two mirrors formed a virtual image at a distance greater than the accommodation distance so that the diver could focus on the displayed information. Furthermore, no monitor was provided by which the diver could receive video information.
None of the equipment described in the two specifications referred to above has a display means having magnifying power. By providing this, the invention enables a miniature monitor, packaged for subsea use, to be used comfortably by the diver to view video images, and also non-video images if desired.
Diver communication equipment, according to the invention, comprises a diver's helmet having a faceplate and display means carried by the helmet, said display means including means by which images can be created in response to an electronic input including a video input and an optical system for said image, said optical system including an eyepiece, locating means locating said eyepiece within said helmet behind said faceplate, said eyepiece having an output axis which is inclined to a vertical plane, and said optical system being effective to focus said image or images or an intermediate version thereof for a diverted eye of the diver.
In one form of equipment, said helmet having a through-aperture and being provided with seal means at said aperture, said locating means being a tube extending into the interior of said helmet, said seal means being in sealing relationship with said helmet and with said tube, said display means comprising a monitor mounted on said helmet in a horizontal, or near horizontal position and said optical system includes prism means by which light is deflected from an axis defined in a first direction by said monitor to an axis defined in a second direction by a relay lens system contained in said tube between said prism means and said eyepiece, said monitor, said prism means and said relay lens system being housed in a pressure-resistant housing, part of which is formed by said tube and which is closed at one end by said eyepiece.
In another form of equipment, said helmet having a through-aperture and being provided with seal means at said aperture, said locating means being a tube extending into the interior of said helmet, said seal means being in sealing relationship with said helmet and with said tube, said display means comprising a monitor and being contained in said tube which together with said eyepiece forms a pressure-resistant housing.
Embodiments of diver communication equipment will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING
FIG. 1 is a vertical section through a first embodiment;
FIG. 2 is a vertical section through a second embodiment, shoving an optical system used in the helmet shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a plan looking down on the top of
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Fifth International Conference On Advanced Robotics, Robots In Unstructured Environments, vol. 1, Pisa, Italy, pp. 1342-1347, Jun. 19, 1991.
Clarke Derek William
Huxford Roger Brian
Robinson Arthur Graham
BG plc
Mengistu Amare
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