I was cleared to talk about this, but I cannot from exactly who. All images are my scans of the original engineering documents and cover files. Information other than the slides is to the best of my knowledge. I am putting pictures in a separate thread, to avoid people having to scroll down through all of them when replying.
PICS! http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=120&t=11956" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;In the 80s, McDonnell Douglas wanted to be first to the market with a full color head mounted display. Up this point, they were either monochrome vector based or used photographic still prints.
The NASA Ames HMD to be the first raster based full motion HMD, using extremely low resolution monochrome LCD panels. MDD hoped to capture what they saw as an emerging military demand with a full color, full motion HMD with a large FOV. This is the short version of the story of it's creation, the first color HMD.
MDD had enormous cash flow in the late 60s and 70s, and in addition to building aircraft (To the consumer, McDonnell Douglas is perhaps most easily recognized by the iconic DC-10), they were continuing to branch into weapons, training, information management and navigational subsystems for both marine and air use. As one of the primary military contractors, they enjoyed relative security in R&D of new technologies.
One of these projects, which as far as I know, has never been revealed to the public, is the Farrand Head Mounted Display.
This system used 3 monochrome CRT panels, a combiner, and a fiber optic light transmission cable. The image was "smeared" in order to compress the pixels vertically for transmission, a process which was reversed on the head side.
Final specs were 640x512 resolution at 60hz per panel, and a horizontal FOV of 43, and a vertical of 32, resulting in a combined diagonal FOV of just under 60 degrees.
MDD hired a company in New York, Farrand Optics, to be the primary subcontractor. The prototype went through several major revisions. All were fully operational in regard to the helmet and transmission line were tested using photographic color prints. However, the smearing optics and CRT combiner were never fully completed. Why? The owner let the project die out. Or more correctly, the owner of Farrand Optics died as a result of a severe stroke. He had not kept the project well documented, with the only progress reports being of a very general nature, and only because of insistence from MDD that they be filed. Because of this, the project was unable to continue. Desperate, MDD tried to find other companies that could pick up on the work, but they were told by many that fabrication of this technology was simply beyond their means. MDD quite literally had nothing but several progress reports, vague design documents, a large canvas bag full of foam wrapped parts, and more than $100,000 out of pocket. (Side note: The Farrand Optics of today was established in 1998, and has no relation to the former Farrand Optics.)
The project was officially scrapped, as a result of the bean counters deciding that pouring more money into this silly, useless HMD business would not pay off commercially, and that the current ranks of vector based, monochrome HMDs was good enough for the military.
As time wore on, the parts were left in the lab, unable to function. CRT monitors could not be fabricated in the dot pitch they needed precisely enough to work without the smearing and combining optics. They attempted to prototype an extremely early day LCD panel with the specs needed, but the tech, sadly, was not yet sufficiently advanced. One of the engineers at MDD, (unnamed), stayed on with the company all the way through their later acquisition of the company by Boeing. During the relocation activities, he had an opportunity to use the disorganization to his advantage. He took possession of the parts through an "unauthorized equipment relocation" (Yes, that is exactly what it sounds like.
), and remains in possession of them to this day. PICTURES HERE: http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=120&t=11956" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Don't miss the pics.
