Heads-Up Displays (HUDs) face several challenges when used in daylight conditions, primarily due to brightness and readability issues. Daylight, especially direct sunlight, can wash out the display, making it hard to see critical information. Additionally, glare and reflections on the HUD’s transparent screen can obscure the view, while maintaining high contrast between display information and background light is difficult. Enhancing brightness to counter these effects typically requires more power, which can significantly reduce battery life in portable systems, limiting their operational duration.
Kopin is getting a jump on helping to solve some of thee problems with a contract to develop its daylight HUDs for warfighters. The HUD will provide warfighters with real-time geospatial information directly in their line of sight, improving situational awareness.
The new HUDs are supposed to build on existing Kopin technology and will use high-resolution OLED microdisplay. Kopin believes that it can address the challenges of getting brighter displays while improving power efficiency and now has the means to invest in finding the right approach. The company is also incorporating its AR software technology and claims to have withstood a rigorous selection process to get this contract, giving it an opportunity to making new advances in HUD display development.