With the military projected to spend 11.2 billion USD globally in 2020 on UAVs and robotics, how should display technology evolve with this expanding market?
Tom Whinfrey, president and CEO, Industrial Electronic Engineers Inc. (IEE)
The evolution of display technology as it relates to the Military UAV market can be addressed in relation to challenges of the human-machine interface, and factors that affect mission success. As is the case for any high stress, long duration mission profile, operator comfort and cognitive capability support are as important as reliability and maintainability.
Ground operators are limited in perceptual cues, such as field of view, vibration and sound. Additional challenges include the inefficient presentation of display content and excessive data load. Critical data may not be front and center, and large amounts of raw data might be presented as text vs. graphics. Operators need to be able to digest information quickly and are at risk of information overload.
Remote pilots will benefit from displays that increase the field of vision. Improvements in touch technology should increase confidence in the display as a control surface for critical activity. Incorporating programmable tactile feedback into the display surface will provide a more realistic feel.
Replacing blocks of raw textual data with processed data in graphical format relieves the operator of parsing the text details. Similarly, replacing graphics items showing continuous information with those showing threshold crossings or other display-by-exception reduces the time spent monitoring less critical display content. Continued improvements in resolution, color gamut, contrast ratio, and intensity, provide a more natural environment for the operators.
With these changes, the display arrangement can then be prioritized to place the most critical items in the operators’ immediate field of view, with less critical items off-axis. Careful color combinations, font types and sizes also increase cognitive stamina, as does reducing abrupt changes from one display mode to another. Adaptive macros or similar assistance can reduce the complexity of operator interaction. Display technology will continue to evolve, but must be carefully integrated with the human-machine interface.
Reza Arfin, Executive Vice President, North American Operations, Microtips Technology
Modern day display technologies provide higher resolution, lower power consumption, and superb optical performance. These extraordinary performing displays are cost effective and are a great fit for all different types of consumer applications. Still, when we consider the ever-growing military applications, display offerings are still limited, challenging, and costly. Display applications in the military sector are exploding. From personalized handheld devices in the field to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and robotics, however, standard display offerings for these applications are not available.
Additional and special modifications are a must to meet the temperature specs, environmental specs, and reliability specs. For these reasons, military grade displays are bulky, not sexy (although they may not be required to look like an Apple or a Surface), and extremely pricey. The display industry should look to develop native display panels, which can meet some of these military specifications—specifically the temperature and IPC spec.
Integrated Capacitive Touch with display panels would also make a good addition to military applications. For a second tier integrator this problem could actually be considered good news, as they can build products more cost effectively that may ultimately benefit the military.
