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Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (한국전자통신연구원)
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Compact near-eye display for firefighter's self-contained breathing apparatus

  • Ungyeon Yang (Content Research Division, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute)
  • Received : 2023.02.20
  • Accepted : 2023.08.26
  • Published : 2023.12.10
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Abstract

We introduce a display for virtual-reality (VR) fire training. Firefighters prefer to wear and operate a real breathing apparatus while experiencing full visual immersion in a VR fire space. Thus, we used a thin head-mounted display (HMD) with a light field and folded optical system, aiming to both minimize the volume for integration in front of the face into a breathing apparatus and maintain adequate visibility, including a wide viewing angle and resolution similar to that of commercial displays. We developed the optical system testing modules and prototypes of the integrated breathing apparatus. Through iterative testing, the thickness of the output optical module in front of the eyes was reduced from 50 mm to 60 mm to less than 20 mm while maintaining a viewing angle of 103°. In addition, the resolution and image quality degradation of the light field in the display was mitigated. Hence, we obtained a display with a structure consistent with the needs of firefighters in the field. In future work, we will conduct user evaluation regarding fire scene reproducibility by combining immersive VR fire training and real firefighting equipment.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP) under a grant funded by the Korea Government, Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) (no. 2019-0-01347; Development of Realistic Fire Training Content Technology to Help Simulate Fire Sites and Improve Command Capabilities).

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