Headset gives wearer 360-degree field of vision

New Scientist : A video camera, special mirrors, and a 3D-view headset all mounted on a helmet let wearers see everything around them. Developed by Jérôme Ardouin and his colleagues at the Grande école d’Ingenieurs Paris-Laval in France, the system is called FlyVIZ. Still just a prototype, the helmet weighs 1.6 kg, making it a bit heavy to walk around in, and is tethered to a laptop for video processing. Ardouin says it takes about 15 minutes for users to acclimatize to the expanded field of view. In a series of trials, test subjects were able to pick up objects they would not have normally been able to see, dodge balls thrown from behind them, and even drive a car. They also demonstrated acceptable depth perception ability, which the team attributed to intuitive motion tracking and parallax. The team reported that none of the test subjects suffered any motion sickness or visual fatigue. An advanced version of the device could be used by police, firefighters, and the military.