Navy Developing 'Iron Man'-Style Helmet for Divers

— -- The U.S. Navy seems to be looking to Iron Man for a little inspiration.

Earlier this month, the Navy announced that it was developing of a diving helmet with a head-up display embedded inside. The display, reminiscent of Tony Stark's own high-tech helmet, "enables divers to have real-time visual display of everything from sector sonar (real-time topside view of the diver's location and dive site), text messages, diagrams, photographs and even augmented reality videos," according to a press release.

Dennis Gallagher, project engineer for Underwater Systems Development, described the project as “next generation” and “pushing the envelope” in an interview with ABC News.

“As we went through and started prototyping in the laboratory,” Gallagher said, “a lot of the feedback was, ‘This is like a video game. It will give me capabilities I never even dreamed of.’”

Gallagher's team plans to test the system in shallow waters before the end of 2016.

Gallagher said his overall goal is to create new technologies that “people could not imagine even a year or two ago,” and compared the new helmet to Iron Man’s suit.

“With Iron Man,” he said, “you’ve got high tech, but you also have Tony Stark in the suit. It’s the same thing here -- you see this man-machine hybrid with divers in the water."

He added: "If we’re doing a simple one to 10 on the awesomeness level, this is around a 14.”