AR Snow Goggles

Christopher Han

Projects

AR Snow Goggles

Note: This project is in active development. I'll update this page as I make progress.

Overview

Hardware project building AR ski and snowboard goggles to improve on-moutain visibility on low visibility days.
Boosts contrast, brightness, and overall visibility to improve situational awareness and minimize risk.

Problem

I've been snowboarding for 15 years and started splitboarding in 2022 to access the backcountry.
Snowboarding fresh snow is exhilirating, but it only comes during snow storms. Powder days are often overcast, cold, and low visibility.
Due to overcast weather, there are no shadows on the snow making it difficult to see the slopes and read the terrain features.
Low visiblity increases risk and the potential for accidents, and even death.

Goal

Improve overall constrast and visibility in order to improve on-snow performance, situational awareness, and safety
Use CLAHE (Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization) to enhance the scene in real time

Before: snowy mountain in low visibility with overcast clouds — Before — low visibility, flat contrast

After: same scene with CLAHE enhancement showing terrain detail — Before — low visibility, flat contrast

Materials / Hardware

GPU: NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano
Camera: Arducam xISP - Darksee, Pre-tuned ISP, 2MP Low Light MIPI Camera
Display: 0.49" Micro OLED Display, 1920x1080 resolution, 3000 NITS
Combiner: 25 x 25mm 30R/70T (Reflective / Transmissive)
Optics: OPE05-12XN Magnifying lens

Architecture

AR Snow Goggles system architecture diagram

Hardware

Camera module with Jetson — Arducam low light camera with NVIDIA Jetson

All components laid out — Clockwise from top left: Glass combiner, micro OLED display, HDMI adapter board for the display, and magnifying lens

F1 prototype angle view — Playing a video on the display (F1 race)

F1 prototype zoomed — What the video looks like through the magnifying lens

Image processing
What's next

Overall, the scene I tested was extremely dark (office with just a desk lamp) and not representative of real-world, overcast conditions I'm targeting. I think it's safe to move forward to testing this in the wild.
Make a head mount or modify existing snow goggles to mount all the components.
Test in the real world and iterate.