Thales, OKO, 2014
OKO is a two-piece product designed for firefighters in the context of smoke-diving: it consists of one shareable camera unit and a set of individual near-eye display, using SWIR technology.
Sight is something we take for granted. Something we do not necessarily realize is that this sense can easily be blocked or otherwise taken away from us. How does this affect people?
Losing the sight sense, even if just temporarily, is stressful even in relatively relaxed settings. There is an occupation where sight is lost regularly in an environment that is extremely hot and toxic. In this occupation you are also required to carry around approximately 40 kg of equipment while crawling. The occupation in question is firefighting where sight is regularly lost during smokediving missions.
The team designed OKO, which is a two-piece product. OKO consists of one shareable camera unit and a set of individual near-eye display. The camera and the display were separated in order to divide the weight. The display is fixed inside the gas mask, whereas the camera is portable and can be placed in three different positions for three different needs.