First-generation Interactive Headsets - Text 2
The transmitted image was conveyed to the user by means of a semi-reflecting “half-tone mirror,” making it possible to see both the virtual and the real, the surroundings captured by the camera and the immediate surroundings of the user, as in a head-up (or HUD) display or in an augmented or mixed reality system.
This system also made it possible to couple an observer with several cameras, such as a principal interactive camera and two secondary moored cameras, and to juxtapose these three images in a single image to allow the pilot to see several points of view all around the airplane at the same time.
Finally, the system can also join two users and one camera in order to share the image while superimposing two interactive yet asymmetrical perspectives: the “principal observer” chose the point of view and the “secondary observer” was able only to reframe slightly.
In principle, it is hard to see these latter combinations as having a great deal of interest. The text of the patent application gives an idea of the project’s aesthetic program: the goal, it states, is to reinforce the “feeling of realism,” the “subjective feeling of being present at the remote pick up.”[2] But the text is reserved about the invention’s possible applications. At the same time, the examples given are significant: the text mentions “complex tasks” carried out remotely, like landing a supersonic airplane or piloting a plane, ship, submarine or tank.
It may seem surprising that an electrical engineer who did research for one of the largest American producers of radios and television sets suddenly became interested in the remote piloting of airplanes. It helps to know that during the Second World War Bradley worked with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop a radar system for the American army. From 1955 to 1957, at the height of the Cold War, Philco produced transistor computers for military aviation. And in 1957 Bradley took a long, ten-year leave from Philco to sit on the President’s Science Advisory Committee (PSAC), which advised Dwight Eisenhower on defence matters and in particular on the development of a space program and of intercontinental ballistic missiles; and to work with the Institute for Defense Analyses in its famous Advanced Research Projects Agency, which promoted the development of innovative military technology. It was precisely during this period that Bradley filed the patent application for his “remotely controlled remote viewing system.”
