NASA designs an augmented reality patch to prevent plane crashes

NASA Langley Research Center (Virgin, EU) has found a way to combat the tragedy of plane crashes, that claim the lives of hundreds of people in one fell swoop. An augmented reality patch, provided with image and sound, will provide additional information to pilots when weather conditions make visibility difficult.

Statistics on accidents on commercial flights show that the majority occur during takeoff and landing due to bad weather or the saturation of airplanes at airports.. For this reason, NASA believes that the inclusion of augmented reality technology would help provide all the necessary information to the pilot while maintaining their vision of what is happening.

So, NASA's Langley research center is developing an augmented reality-based headset so commercial flight pilots can reduce plane crashes., a kind of hands-free kit that allows computer-generated images to be viewed through the screen of a patch that the pilot will place over one of his eyes. The pilot can thus see, at the same time, overpressured, “real world” images and system-generated images related to data or objects, that will interact in real time with the first.

Besides, The device uses gyroscopes and sensors that allow the software to recognize the indicators located at various points in the cabin, with the aim of determining where the pilot is looking at each moment. It also includes a voice recognition system that will allow the pilot to control the application orally..

Thanks to this gadget, when fog or other inclement weather prevents normal visibility, the pilot will still be able to see the landing strip, the other planes, the control tower and all other elements of the real world thanks to the 3D recreations provided by the device. This will make it possible to avoid accidents with tragic consequences., which mostly occur at the time of landing or during the transit of the device along the runway.

This innovation is part of a broader NASA program, called 'Synthetic Vision', which aims to bring to commercial aviation the advances in the field of augmented reality that are already being implemented in military aviation.