Bobku

The goal is totally to make this setup 100% self-contained. The bigger challenge for me is really making sure it's going to be able to retrofit into existing helmets without needing too much rework. Ideally, if I could just make this into the helmet from the start, everything would be hidden inside layers that would never been seen or even accessible. That's why I was asking the question about how many pieces does a helmet come in for the average person. The biggest thing I really need to figure out at the moment is where can I cut through from the outside that would have the least impact. Or better put, what areas could be converted easily from a painted or faux feature and replaced with a mesh or something similar? One such question I have is, could the piece extended off the ear be used as a switch or a push to talk button, without detracting from the appearance or messing something else up. Anyway, a great many thanks for your input, Daetrin, you brought up a lot of great points that I was thinking about and even more that you made me rethink my approach. I've been actually looking a lot into motorcycle helmets for ideas and inspiration. Personally, I would hate trying to suggest someone buy something like that, and try to strip it down and re-purpose it, because you're really paying a lot of extra overhead for another design and purpose. I'm focusing on the individual components and working on taking the best parts of everything, and building them up from and OEM level. As of right now, some of the basic hardware I've been looking at to accomplish all of this would run about $40 - $50. But I think your list adds some things in there that would be really easy to accommodate. Bluetooth linking to a cellphone was something I was really thinking about, but I think it might be worthwhile to add in there... The power draw shouldn't be too much extra. As far as the FRS goes, I'm still really on the fence about this one. On one hand, I really like the stability and lower power needs of going to the 465 MHz range, but my only concern is the off chance that you end up with a family using something that shares that frequency and accidentally bumping into a conversation. I was originally thinking of going around the 35 MHz range which falls within CB. I'm still really on the fence about this one and would be totally open to anyone chiming in with a push one way or another. All this stuff being said... Initial tests with the screen seem to show some promise and an issue that arose ended up actually working in my favour so to speak. From my test subjects, it looks like the screens will need to be about 6 inches away to get a true and proper focus for everyone of any age range. This actually isn't a problem at all, because the screens can be mounted off to the side by the ears, and projected to a prismatic mirror that will go down in front of your eyes. This will actually help cut down on some potential eye strain but also gives me a surface that can be projected on to similar to the HoloLens to project an object artificially outward. I'll play around with some concepts and see what can come of this. Also, scaled down prototype finished up nicely, so I have something to play around with for wiring and such, but again, here comes the big question... Is this typically how people tend to get their helmets? Is it usually one main body and 6 extra pieces (including the lenses which I didn't print?)

Hi again... So I'm coming back with a couple extra questions... First one is I've been working on getting a good 3D model to do all my work with. I've tried pulling together bits and pieces of information scattered about the internet, and it seems like there's a lot of different approaches to how these helmets are normally made, but I from what I could gather, most helmets come in one main piece with a couple accessory items. Is this right? I'm attaching a render of what my model ended up with and a cross section of the internal so far. I'm printing out a half scale of this this just to work with at the moment, but wanted to get some more input first. Thanks again.

Hate double posting, but just want to give this it's own space. For those keeping tabs on how this progresses, I wanted to outline my process. <br><br> Phase 1: Input and concept. What we're doing now. I'm working on getting as much information I can on what's going to be needed or wanted, plus getting to know the application. Spit balling ideas and approaches and so on. <br><br> Phase 2: Rough design. Here I'm going to start looking more to specific technologies to use, working out placement, mock up, figuring out the logic and working out basic numbers. <br><br> Phase 3: Detailed Design. Here I'm going to actually spec out exact component model numbers, running wiring, supports, bench to testing of the parts. <br><br> Phase 4: Prototyping. This is probably the stage everyone really wants to get to. I'm going to want to try working on testing the final design. Try a retrofit or two, figure out ways to make everything fit comfortable and focus on the aesthetics and refining everything. <br><br> Phase 5: Work out suppliers, and simplifying installation. Ideally, once everything is all said and done, I would love to make this available to anyone that wants one, so it'd probably be helpful to identify people that would basically like to take it over.<br><br> As this goes along I'm open to working with anyone that would like to be involved directly, especially with the earlier stages. One of my biggest concerns is going to be doing something that might break established standards; like I'm really curious what looks like painted vent slots in the helmet bring cut out into real vents. Working with someone directly might help catch something like that early before I build a lot of things around it.

You know what.... I'm not exactly sure. There have been a couple times that I've had glasses break or lose contacts and had to drive home using the LCD screen on a camera to be my eyes, and that actually worked pretty well... In theory, this should work for someone that's near sided. It might actually reduce eye strain to not use your glasses. I really need to look into this at some point and do a few experiments. Appreciate you bringing up the voice modulators because that's something I wasn't exactly sure how to approach. Is there some go to standard, is multiple types / sizes, how tuned in does the output sound need to be. I can easily accommodate for something aftermarket, but this is really something I want to look deeper into. Especially how much variability is there from currently available units. Also, really appreciate the input, especially on catching some of the practical parts like odor control. As a designer, I can only ask the questions I think to ask... Sometimes I need input just to help figure out what questions I need to ask. Think of me as the R&D department (which isn't far from the truth cause I am in R&D), I'm not in the thick of it, so what's common to everyone, isn't so much to me and vice versa. That's why I love to build off the dialogue. Curious why I'm doing something, ask. Think I'm not considering something important, mention it. Want to make random requests or suggestions, feel free. More often than not, great ideas and built off the side of nonsense suggestions. Ask for a self-assembling helmet, and I might tell you the cost might become high enough to buy your own country, but it might trigger me to think about assembly into existing helmets and such. Plus, if we were actually to make the helmet truly functional to the point it's no longer considered a prop, and could actually be rated as something like a safety helmet we would fall outside the realm of the trademark and would be able to produce the helmet fully assembled. Anyway, as for the head cooling, working on the idea of taking something like an LCG (as shown below) and embedding some Polyacrylamide crystals into the fabric. The crystals will absorb some surplus water, and making sure there's a little bit of cotton in the fabric, the cotton would then slowly wick out the water from the crystals allowing for some evaporative cooling. The idea would be to keep the balance right so that there's always some cooling going on, but not so much water is present that it always feels wet. Plus layers could be used with a gradient concentration of crystals so that you're getting some extra absorbency near your skin (And now you know how moisture wicking garnets work).

Another important question, what would be the best helmet variation to use as a baseline? I've got a pretty big SLA 3D printer to work with and was actually planning on printing out a working piece (unless someone wants to donate a helmet I can slice in half =) ) but what best represents a majority.

Nothing is going to suck down battery worse than the screen. Well, unless I try to pack in a micro freon compressor. But making a lens carousel wouldn't far fetched. If this were truly tactical, I'd be put a a normal, telephoto and IR lens on a rotating disc but that might be overkill in this application. Maybe a Gen 2 of this design would focus on making you combat capable. I have some friends in the DoD that I would love to upstage. But that's beside the point. A normal and periscopic prism would let you see your feet would be easy to do. Now, a general question. How would the idea of wearing a ski mask under the helmet go over? And when I say ski mask, I mean a mask made of cooling gel. I'd rather see everything contained in the helmet itself bit I'm kicking around ideas to make sure this can accommodate any size and shape head. Also, how long do I need to push for the battery to reasonably last? What's the longest you could go without being able to eject and reload a new pack. I'm currently shooting for 4 hours out of one rechargeable pack but I might be able to put in two slots if need be.

That's easy enough to accommodate. My first thought was to go with a good 1080 CMOS sensor (Example) then have the lens made based on the exact angles I'm wanting to get. Your eye can see roughly 67 degrees down from your focal center, but since we're essentially making an artificial eye, the lens could be adjusted off center to give you less upper view and more downward, with the max being the point that you're looking at the front of your helmet. The only downside to you might always think you're looking down and start tilting your head upward to compensate. And take it from personal experience, I would never suggest thinking about a 360 camera showing a full image around you, cause the brain just does not know how to handle where the heck you are. The camera itself would ideally be placed right behind the existing eye pieces in whatever corner would be the least distracting if someone were to wanting to switch the screen up and look out normally and because I never want to fully rely on technology working when its supposed to. As for the display itself, depending on what would be the best approach itself, it would be very likely to end up with something like this either being a large single screen wrapping across both eyes, or two smaller ones rotated vertically. (It would actually be more of a hemisphere to mimic the eye and reduce distortion. The other picture is just to give an example of how big these things cameras would be (1/4" Probably).

This one wouldn't be hard to do with the external audio. Now given that certain environments would be pretty noisy, would it be worthwhile to look at muting the external noise when comm audio is coming in (one ear would probably be easier). As for talking to others in the group... That one could be done all sorts of fun ways. Since you'd need a way to pick which output your voice is going to it'd be important to maybe start with some options of how to use it and see what seems more practical from a user stand point. Option 1 would be to simply switch back and forth. To pick a channel and stay there until you switch. Option 2 would be a default output, and a "push to talk" mechanism for speaking in the secondary channel. Going beyond 2 outputs wouldn't be horrible, but it might get a little tricky to manage from the user standpoint. As for working it, a button is always the classic option; however, I really want to steal a little bit from Robert Heinlein and consider maybe using the bite button. Hand-free way of switching channels on the fly. Also, are there situations where you'd ever see wanting to mute incoming / outgoing completely? Personally, I romanticize a functional HUD, but so far, it's not that the technology isn't there, it's more that we aren't really ready for it. Even the military is really struggling with this one. On making something that doesn't become overpowering and distracting. Google Glass was a great example of showing how much we really do want this, but we're still working out how to do it right. Simple signals like a flashing colored light or things like that are usually easier to not only implement but interpret. Our peripheral vision is bad at handling process information, that you can't really put a lot there, but think something like a blind spot mirror warning. There's also the balance here of hardware / cost / features. Taking a CMOS camera and feeding it directly through to a OLED display could be done with the most basic DAQ board, that the components probably cost about $23. The HUD would need a more complex system to handle input / output / networking. Raspberry Pi of course being the go to example of the extra part needed. And there is the ever so slight issue then if you get flooded with messages, would your video bandwidth start to lag. Welcome to the future, where "I'm worried about someone launching a DDoS against my eyes" is a thing. Anything and everything. An old project I once worked on was trying to add as many modern comforts to a Model A, such as power breaks, steering, etc while maintaining the external appearance as much as possible so anyone walking by would think it's just a nice Model A... By the end of that project, we had managed to included heated seats, AC, and even managed to hide a full 7" screen Sat Radio / Nav system in the paneling. So think I'm thinking of it like that... If it can fit between the out of the helmet and the head, it's in the scope. As for the liquid... That's why I want to talk about planning out a full integration... The two can totally play well together with a good layout. Actually, in this case, I think your idea may work great with the cooling setup. One of the ideas I was thinking of for cooling is like a water activated gel material. Similar to things that NASA is using, but more like what they developed for people with Ichthyosis, so water runs through this stuff, and it cools itself down. Big advantage, No power required! Now, a small little bladder bag could be put somewhere with a sort of crazy straw running around through the helmet down to a tube (like a camelback). Takes care of hydration. A few carefully designed (leaks) in that tube could also be used to wet the gel while taking a drink. So take a sip, cool down a little... Linking the two together can make things simpler, but it may not really work for all situations, and depending on how much someone needs to drink in a day, it could be more important to use all the water for hydration. But that's where I really want to treat this as a back and forth with everyone.

Sneaking in here with somewhat of a strange first post, but I think I've passed through the site quietly more than a few times picking up bits and pieces of information working on a project, but thought it was time I just and say hello. I'm a design engineer / materials physicist by profession with a specialty in developing theories into application. Most of my time is spent integrating things together with an absurd amount of constraints, but I love what I do, which is why it's also something I do in my personal time. That being said, I've been really attracted to this idea for a while: to make something that doesn't just look like it's real but also works like it's real; to smudge up that line that goes between science fiction and science fact. Which leads me here... What I'm Proposing: I would like to see about designing and possibly prototyping a system which could either be built into a new helmet or possibly retrofitted into existing helmets. Developing that system to address different shortcomings of current helmets. And do it in an economical way that could be put together into a simple kit. Or.... I want to make the helmets work closer to the way they should work if they were military issued. Plus, you shouldn't try to make a better hammer, without talking to a carpenter. So in effort to do that, I'd really like to get some input from anyone willing to share. I've got a few questions I'm hoping to answer, but also see if I'm missing some things that should be included. What kind of field of view would you really want to have? Full 175 degree horizontal and 135 degree vertical FOV isn't exactly an impossible thing to accomplish using a flexible OLED, nor is it that expensive as the screen component would cost about $9 - $10; however, this would be more prone to fish eye curvature, and would probably through off depth perception. Sacrificing some of that down to say 120 degrees / 90 degrees would be able to give a more 3D effect to establish depth and minimal distortion. What about incoming sound? I've heard / read numerous times that it's really hard to hear what's going on around you. Bringing external sounds in wouldn't be much trouble to do at all, but thanks to this wonderful modern day we live in, it would also be possible to filter out crowd noise or would it be better to try and just hear things around you as if you weren't wearing the helmet? Cooling is the other one I see as being a huge complaint... Before we even talk about adding in these kind of extra electronics. Personal opinion, I don't like fans... Spinning blades in tight quarters near your face... That being said, weight is going to be the issue with alternative methods, and power... There are passive methods of basically hiding a heat exchanger in between everything but it may not help enough during a Florida summer. There are active ways of cooling that essentially would be putting a tiny air conditioner in the helmet that could handle a Death Valley noon day picnic, but then power would become the problem maybe ending up with 2-3 hours or so before needing a recharge. And what about heating, would there ever be a need to actually warm things up in there? These are just some basic questions from my end, but I'm also really open to hear about what other things people might want. Things like switchable from electronic display to normal in case of power failures or just because are things I do consider, but I'm totally open to even crazy ideas like, could a respirator be added. Because if it's wanted / needed / etc. then why not. Plus, right now I'm at the drawing board so it's easier to put it in and figure out how to make it work. As this process goes on, I'll start to focus on addressing how to many it fit for different sizes and things like that, but again, right now it's "what's on your wish list"