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Augmented reality in military use

To enhance military operations augmented reality can play an important role. Augmented reality is an interactive experience where different objects are projected over the real world vision. It can be used in the military by implementing the technology in augmented reality glasses. The technology can help improve a mission through showing important information the soldier might need in different situations that might occur.

1.1 Existing AR projects for military use

ARC4 (Augmented Reality Command Control Communicate Coordinate) Tactical Augmented Reality (TAR) ULTRA-Vis (Urban Leader Tactical Response, Awareness and Visualization) is such an AR-oriented research project launched by US’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 2008. Eyekon project BARS project

Design

Interface

In the design of the interface of the sight of the soldier there are different aspects that need to be taken into account. It is important that there is not too much information in the permanent sight of the soldier. The only info the soldier will need to have permanently in his sight are: a compass, a minimap of his surrounding, a location point and the hour. However, some elements can pop-up. For example a warning alert and text.

Semiotics

In the military there are certain standards of icons e.g. NATO Joint Military Symbology. These icons are not really suitable for augmented reality and need to be adjusted for another use. When the soldier is in a stressful situation, the icons and the way how the informations are shown in the AR has to be as easy and fast understandable as possible.

Glasses

For the glasses it is important to have an ergonomic shape that covers the whole view of the soldier. In that way the glasses can be used to project augmented reality all over his field of view. If this is not done right user will not be able to see everything correctly and maybe lose some view areas of his field of view. This could be a problem with for example enemies or danger on the ground like landmines. Another obstacle is to create glasses which fits perfectly on to the helmet. The design depends on the adaptability of the glasses to different helmets as well.

Amount of information

In military operations soldiers do not have a lot of time to make decisions so all the information needs to be designed so the icons are easily understandable because in a battlefield area the mental state of a soldier will drop to a lower level. It is important to reduce the amount of information as much as possible and show only what is relevant for the user in the right moment. In this way the soldier will be able to understand the information efficiently.

Sort of information

A soldier needs all sort of information during his/her mission. Examples of information: amount of ammunition health situation access to a detailed map signal strength battery capacity weather forecast location of team members

Hardware

The military glasses will include an essential hardware element : an inertial measurement unit, commonly known as an IMU. To explain his use in a simple way, it’s an electronic device that measures and reports orientation, velocity, and gravitational forces through the use of accelerometers and gyroscopes like you see in the picture at the right "Gyroscope wheel". The IMU is capable of integrated the movements of the helmet and is used for the augmented reality glasses. The IMU is used by augmented reality glasses to project information upward or downward. For instance, the IMU is used to project the weather forecast when the soldier look up. These glasses can send data to other connected objects present on the soldier by using bluetooth.

References

Zhengzhou Institute of Surveying and Mapping, & College of Computer, National University of Defense Technology. (2018). Survey on Urban Warfare Augmented Reality. Available on http://www.mdpi.com/2220-9964/7/2/46/pdf (accessed on 29 october 2018) Challenges of designing Augmented Reality for Military use, UMEÅ Universitet, Michael Karlsson, Diva-portal.org. (2018). [online] Available at: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:823544/FULLTEXT01.pdf [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018].

Mizokami, K. (2017, 14 november). DARPA Is Working on Giving Soldiers Supervision. Available on https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/research/a26654/darpa-augmented-reality-soldiers/ (accessed on 31 october 2018) Lynch, G. (2017b, 16 september). AR warfare: How the military is using augmented reality. Available on https://www.techradar.com/news/death-becomes-ar-how-the-military-is-using-augmented-reality. (accessed on 31 october 2018)