ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on human factors design guidelines and user interface issues generated from decades of experiments and experience. They provide a foundation on which to build future studies aimed at further increasing soldier performance at night. Combat night-vision capability began with a technology called image intensification that was developed in the 1950s. This technology operates in the near infrared light spectrum and gathers ambient light from the moon, stars, and manmade sources of light, and intensifies it. During the 1970s, a technology that operates in the far IR light spectrum emerged. These thermal forward-looking IR detector systems pick up heat signatures and provide the advantage of seeing warm entities not only in the dark but also through many types of smoke, fog, and other obscurants. Image fusion methods generally fall into two categories: optical overlay fusion and digital fusion. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages for use in night vision goggles (NVGs).
