SKULLY Fenix AR Helmet

68mustang405 said:

This is the same company (different owners) that scammed a bunch of people with the AR-1 helmet.. I'd be very careful of pre ordering one.

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That's not really true. The original owners did not scam anyone, and a few of the original helmets actually made it into customer's hands. The original owners DID blow all the money that should have gone into production, on parties, expensive boat and private jet rentals, cars, etc. They had no idea how to run a business and bankrupted their own company. The new owners are well established businessmen, who have a solid reputation of buying ailing companies and turning things around. I trust them, and if I didn't have problems paying that much for a helmet, or problems with HUDs, I'd have no worries about plopping down a down payment.

The problem with HUDs is a condition known as 'attention capture'. This condition originates in the way our brains process visual data, and has been well-known to the aviation industry and military for decades. Regardless of how many people think they are good multitaskers, it simply isn't true. This has been researched over and over again, and it's been proven that our minds can only focus on one thing at a time. Visual processing makes things even worse, because our brains already dump most of the visual information coming in from our eyes. Our brains accept only a small portion of the visual information coming in, and it fills the rest of the image with what it expects to be there from previous experience (perception literally is everything). When you introduce data from different visual sources, such as in front of you and behind you, to the same eye, your brain will focus on one of them and dump information from the other, filling the space with what it expects to be there, which is usually empty space. That's why aviation HUDs are now designed to augment what you see in front of you, rather than provide much other information. The more information your eyes see from other sources, the more your brain tends to focus on a small amount of that information, and ignores other information.

Currently, we have to intentionally look into our mirrors, and turn our heads to look. That intentional action tells our brain where to focus its attention, and then we immediately look back to the road ahead of us and our brain focuses in front of us again. If you have a screen directly in one of your eye's vision, showing visual data from behind you, the brain tends to wander back and forth between which data it's paying attention to, even without you realizing it and without you intentionally looking at the rear view screen. That's dangerous, like using the phone while you drive. HUDs that show visual data from behind you, likely will end up being the cause of accidents and deaths.

Now, is that technology still going to be better than not knowing what's behind you until you look in your mirror or turn your head to look? I don't know. Only time will give enough data to see trends.