Google Glasses? Why not Google Goggles for Soldiers?

There's been a fair amount of press lately about "Google Glasses", a project Google has going for glasses that project data into spectacles.  According to an article at Gizmodo, Google may also be working on a patent for helmet use.

I certainly hope so.  The Army has been struggling to get good wearable computing displays for Soldiers for a good 20+ years now.  The original OICW requirement, as well as the original Land Warrior program, included a helmet-mounted display that had an eyepiece for one eye through which the soldier could see a map display or the view and symbology from his rifle.  Unfortunately, that display was heavy, awkward, and hard to train with --  notably, in a number of demonstrations, soldiers walked into trees while trying to use the helmet mounted display.

The Mounted Soldier System program tried to do the same things with a helmet-mounted display for vehicle crewmen.  Though that display worked better than the Land Warrior one, that program looks like it's on the ropes and not likely to survive.  So no waerable display systems are in the works except perhaps for smartphone based solutions like Nett Warrior.

Incorporating a lightweight display into the ballistic glasses all soldiers now wear in the field seems like a good solution, and a similar technology could be integrated into the helmets of vehicle and air crewmen for a far better human interface than the eyepiece/head-mounted display designs.

Good luck, Google.