NASA SBIR 02-1 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Sensics
10706 Cardington Way #202
Cockeysville , MD   21030 - 3071
(410 ) 628 - 8887

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Lawrence Brown
larry@sensics.com
10706 Cardington Way #202
Cockeysville , MD   21030 - 0000
(443 ) 226 - 2967

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
NASA has embarked on an ever more ambitious
path of developing modular space exploration systems, and
human exploration missions. To enable missions
that are envisioned for the future, advances in
the human/robotic interface are required. This
proposal provides a new telepresence interface, based
on an ultra-wide field-of-view (FOV) HMD. This fully
immersive HMD has a FOV which nearly matches the unobstructed
human visual field, and maintains high resolution throughout.
By combining this immersive display with a custom
camera system and appropriate software, a telepresence
system capable of high-fidelity depth perception, FOV and
resolution is possible. This tool would be a significant
benefit to human operators of robotic systems.
In Phase 1 we will design a tiled, wide FOV camera array
and appropriate 3D software to interface between this
array and the HMD. The product of Phase 2 will be a
complete working telepresence system with custom camera array
and HMD. There are strong commercialization opportunities in the
engineering services industry and various government
agencies, as they are known users of telepresence systems
for remote operation of robots and vehicles.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The ultra-wide field of view of the proposed system
will allow users a much greater sense of immersion in the
displayed enviroment--be it virtual or remote.
The new level of telepresence immersion will
enable much more practical police, rescue and hazmat
applications to emerge. It is also well known
that the US military is increasing its reliance
on remotely piloted vehicles and this system
would work equally well in the battlefield
environment. Entertainment applications will
also emerge: for example, allowing individuals to "step
on the field" during a professional sporting
event via telepresence.

POTENTIAL NASA APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The proposed ultra-wide FOV telepresence system will
enable a new level of operator control over robotic
systems for payload manipulation, docking and similar
tasks. The enhanced FOV and depth perception
will also allow operators of exploration vehicles
greater understanding of the remote terrain---leading
to more efficient exploration and faster, safer
navigation for the remote vehicle. Finally,
playing back the immersive visual experience
recorded on a distant planet for non-NASA
personnel may provide a dramatic marketing tool
for the agency.