F-35 strike fighter helmets: The ultimate in advanced HUD wearables

[MUSIC] If you wanna know what the future of rebels look like, there's no way better to look than to the military. Collins of Australia is making some of the [UNKNOWN] display technologies for the new F-35 Joint Strife Fighter. We're speaking to some of their team today. about the technology behind the new helmet displays that are being used to give all the information that a pilot needs. Tell us how sophisticated the, the optical system is. Well, it is a real game changer for what the, the [UNKNOWN] system. And this particular unit takes care of different, visual light so it's more respectful. When you're building these it's not just about aligning [UNKNOWN] with a very small [UNKNOWN] light which is. Challenging enough. There are six of these on the aircraft which then data fuse all of the information together. Which means that they all have to then work in sync, they all have to be aligned not just from a point of view of light, but from a point of view of being able to sync up the image when it's fused, so you don't get multiple images, image blurring, or any of those sorts of undesirable effects. [INAUDIBLE] So we're speaking with Nick Gibbs, the Managing Director for Rockwell Collins, Australia. Now the facility that they're opening here today and in particular the optical assembly for the Distributed Aperture System or DAS that is, made behind what's going on in the Hull F-35 helmet system. The, the DAS capability is really outstanding and that it allows the pilot to see in every direction through the floor of the aircraft, through the wings. As well as, not only see what's there, but have additional information overlayed so they can make key decisions. And the helmet is an extremely important part of the mission equipment is that all of the information that's critical for the pilot is displayed in the helmet. He almost doesn't need to use any of the other instruments in the aircraft. So it is essential and it really is you know, a precision part of this equipment that needs to be custom, customized for every pilots head. So that the optics and the display is perfectly aligned for each pilot's eyes. And then what are the sorts of things that you know, maybe eventually one day you, you think. >from this sort of technology might arrive in the kinds of wearables that people are now wishing that people can have in their everyday lives. I think it's just a matter of time. The capability is evolving, the price is coming down, the ability to process information. It's just a matter of time before this kind of technology will be built into glasses. Into cars, into helmets or motorcycles. There's no doubt about it. [MUSIC]