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" Fog is no friend to a pilot. Any sort of haze, smoke, or darkness can interfere with a pilot&amp;#039;s vision and make flying more painstaking and hazardous. This is especially true for helicopter pilots, who often fly closer closer to the ground (and obstacles) which makes being able to see what&amp;#039;s ahead in low visibility conditions extra crucial. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich are trying to solve this problem by developing a system to give helicopter pilots extra visibility using augmented reality.  The researchers are using LIDAR\u2014the same laser-based vision system some self-driving cars use\u2014to identify the size, shape, and distance of obscured objects. The data is then processed by the helicopter&amp;#039;s onboard computer and transmitted to a transparent head-mounted display worn by the pilot, who sees the obstacles in X-ray cyber vision.         The team tested their AR system on sixteen helicopter pilots, who flew in a range of conditions in a simulator, both with and without an AR assist. The researchers found that, in low visibility conditions, pilots experienced massive improvements while using augmented reality. The researchers hope that their AR technology will be used by rescue pilots, who often have to fly into hazardous areas in low visibility conditions in search of victims. However, the researchers caution that they&amp;#039;re still in the testing phase, and due to strict safety standards in aircraft, augmented reality won&amp;#039;t be available for many more years. Still, when this tech is finally approved, we hope it gets put to use saving as many lives as possible. And looking dang cool while it does it.  Source: Digital Trends "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a21676/augmented-reality-helicopter-pilots/>