The idea is that unlike some of the HUDs on the market now, this display would be full-windshield and actually highlight or outline potential dangers by using data from a combination of on-vehicle sensors and cameras:

Just imagine driving on a particularly rainy or foggy day. Sure, you’ll eventually notice that white car puttering along with its lights off or that person running across the street, but your car could alert you of their presence sooner. [Jalopnik]

They’re coming out next year, though they haven’t set a price. Separate, NEC’s planning a pair of similar shades, except that they’d translate foreign languages in real time, with subtitles hovering in front of you, like you’re watching a movie of your life. Which is how I feel a bunch of the time anyway. [Register, FarEastGizmos via Popular Science via Engadget]

The [CMOS] chip measuring 19.3 by 17 millimeters is fitted on the prototype eyeglasses behind the hinge on the temple. From the temple the image on the microdisplay is projected onto the retina of the user so that it appears to be viewed from a distance of about one meter. The image has to outshine the ambient light to ensure that it can be seen clearly against changing and highly contrasting backgrounds. For this reason the research scientists use OLEDs, organic light-emitting diodes, to produce microdisplays of particularly high luminance.

Wearers could scroll through menus, shift elements and pull up new info by simply focusing on a particular area or moving their eyes in a specific way. The researchers envision this technology proving useful for doctors and engineers somewhere down the line, but you and I both know that if and when something like this becomes readily available, there will be millions of hipster Geordi La Forges out there inundating the world’s coffee shops and Apple Stores. [Fraunhofer via Fast Company]

The helmet projects an augmented reality world inside its visor. This image is created by a visualisation, targeting, and situational awareness marvel called Electro Optical Distributed Aperture System, which combines the feeds from six advanced infrared digital cameras located around the aircraft and other sensors—like radar—into a seamless 360-degree spherical panorama, all in real time.

The panorama inside the helmet effectively makes the F-35 completely invisible to the pilot. In fact, he will be invisible to himself: If he looks down to his legs, he won’t see anything but the ground. He will be able to look to any direction and get a clear view of what is happening, day or night. And not only the image is crystal clear at all times, but it also gets overlaid with information from the targeting system.

The targeting and radar systems can detect any moving object in the ground or the air, identifying them it as friend or foe, as well as their direction under any conditions. It then allows the pilot to lock on one, fire, and direct the weapons towards it.

The system is apparently so advanced that Northrop Grumman—the manufacturer—goes as far as saying that it makes the F-35’s maneuverability irrelevant: “Instead of mutual kills, the F-35 simply exits the fight, and lets its missiles do the turning.” I don’t know if that will prove true in actual combat, but it doesn’t make the helmet and DAS less impressive. [Flight Global]

Try to look beyond that filthy smartphone JPEG compression to get glimpse into the future of auto mirrors.

The NeoView Kolon is a prototype that uses a transparent OLED display, presumably layered over a reflective mirror. The result is a HUD of sorts…that could probably be extremely useful if it didn’t expend so much light and distraction on looking cool.

For instance, a bumper mounted camera outfitted with the proper algorithms could track the speed of incoming vehicles. This data could label incoming fast cars on the OLED, alerting the driver to allow some extra breathing room in his lane.

Or, you know, you could fit a YouTube window up there, too. [OLED Info and OLED Televisions UK via Engadget]

South Korea’s Agency for Defence Development will start developing this uniform at the beginning of 2009 under a two-phase program. The first one will include the battle uniform itself, with the bullet-proof helmet that will include “sub-miniature cameras”, plus a new rifle called K-11. The K-11 will have a laser-guided target system which will communicate with the helmet, as well as mini-missiles and a high explosive projectile.

The battle suit itself will include a personal cooling and heating system, as well as a backpack designed to control it. This will include a friend-or-foe ID system and a GPS.

In the second phase of development, the soldiers will get upgrades in the suit itself, to protect them against external threads, including atomic radiation, chemical agents, lasers, and mines.

Yes, you can welcome your new Korean overlords, as they only want to make sure you buy their flat TVs. [Korea Times via The Raw Feed]

The display is desaturated, claims a wimpy 840×504 resolution and requires distracting frames that break up the image. Seeing this, though, gives the impression that even if it is years and years away, the day when we can control the natural light in our houses, watch video or displays a HUD on the living room window will come. Eventually. [Tech-On via OLED Display]

The interface is highly responsive, the different software demos are visually impressive, and the potential uses for this type of technology are legion. But not one of the participants in the video painted a mustache on his or her face using the mirror’s wide range of drawing tools. It is for that reason that I deem this interactive mirror experiment a complete failure. [LitStudios]