Missed out on using the hi-tech helmet idea to detect evil

I bemoaned the loss of an opportunity in, INVITATION TO HELL, to expound upon a high-tech concept known as, AUGMENTED REALITY, sometimes known as, 'enhanced reality'.

The scientist, played by Robert Urich, invented a clever hi-tech astronaut helmet, applying the still innovative concept of, 'augmented reality', originally pioneered in Darth Vader's helmet in 'Star Wars'.

The scientist downloaded every living biological behaviorial parameter into the helmet's computer database. The purpose was to assist future astronauts in identifying lifeforms. The military is working along similar principles. The helmet's radar/optical/infra-red/ultraviolet, etc, sensors take in all the data of the subject pinpointed by the helmet and process information such as, human, non-human, organic, hostile, friendly, etc. What the scientist didn't know was that his helmet invention succeeded by beyond what he had intended. He brings the helmet home and accidentally leaves it activated on, and sitting on the table countertop. When his beautiful, 'possessed' wife walks by the helmet, inside the helmet we see on the screen, 'non-human', 'malevolent'. I thought this was a clever prop and plot device. Sadly, that was the last the helmet was used that way in the movie.

Over the intervening decades, in the late 1990s and the 2000s, there were reports of the military investigating this distant technology, whose time is too far yet into the future. There were even considerations of use for law enforcement and fire fighters. Imagine the huge advantage to an army infantryman or a marine, dodging through the smoky ruins of some neighborhood in Iraq. Up ahead in the murky, dimly-lit, smoky, hazy distance, the soldier sees a vague human figure flitting in and out of vision. The soldier's electronically equipped, nearly-enclosed ballistic helmet instantly scans the distance ahead with a tight beam of radar, sonar, and invisible laser beam energies. On the helmet screen in front of the soldier's eyes he reads the brightly illuminated information LED data: " distance: 18.45 meters////target ident - human, male////weapons capab - armed, AKM rifle/////intention: hostile/////direction - northeast/////movement - three meters per second////
Assured that the flitting vague figure ahead is a armed hostile and not a an unarmed civilian, the soldier pours out a burst of 5.56 mm bullets from his M4A1 carbine, which is electronically linked to his enclosed helmet. The soldier is rewarded with the sound of a body thudding to the ground and of metal clanking against stone. The soldier double-times it to the location of the sound. He's not out of breath because a helmet-mounted, miniature air fan pours a refreshing stream of filtered, cooled air onto the soldier's face, despite the summertime Iraq heat of 104 F degree heat. Reaching the location of the sound, the American soldier looks down through the smokey haze at the corpse of an Iraqi insurgent, the dead man's AKM assault rifle lying next to him. The American G.I. breathes a sigh of relief and gulps in his refreshing cooled air streaming down over his sweating face. Without his 'augmented reality' information data LED helmet disply, the G.I. would have hesitated to fire, fearing a civilian casualty, especially a child, which probably would have led to an investigation and a court martial, given the U.S. Army's desperation to maintain the 'good guy' squeaky-clean image at all costs, even if it meant offering up its own soldiers for judicial sacrifice. Too many of the G.I.'s buddies lost their lives by hesitating to fire because of fear of legal reprisal from the military. But that was before augmented reality assistance. Even in total darkness the augmented reality ballistic helmet can still detect and identify potential hostiles. As a consequence, American casualties are declining, accidental civilian casualties are almost eliminated, but enemy kills are rising.