Augmented Reality in Military

Military organizations have always been well donated and could spend big money on technology researches. Many of their ‘inventions’ were later adopted in everyday life. Best example is of course an Internet. Military was interested in use of augmenter reality for years. Many concepts have been already introduced in the air crafts and the vehicles. Those are using vision systems embedded in the windscreens or headgears which are providing information about surrounding. Starting with navigation systems, position of the friendly and enemy units up to enhancing view with infrared vision ore online image processing that allows to spot more details than human eye is able to.

As new technology enable building smaller and more portable devices Hughes Aerospace came up with idea of creating Augmented Reality based system for infantry troops. Land Warrior system was initiated in mid-1990s in USA. Nevertheless similar programs are being conveyed in other countries as well :IdZ (Germany), FIST (UK), Félin (France), Land 125 (Australia), MARKUS (Sweden), IMESS (Switzerland) and ACMS (Singapore).

Land Warrior programs has been cancelled in the 2007 and all the technology achievements are moved to the new Future Force Warrior program.
More about this programs may be found here:
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/land-warrior.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Force_Warrior

Here is the video from Discovery Channel presenting what this system is capable of at the moment:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=mE3nPPpTOHw


Capabilities

The goal of the program was to equip soldier with a system connected to a high speed network enabling him to communicate with other team members as well as command center. This way every soldier is working as a sensor and updates data from battlefield for all the others. By now soldiers are being to access the data through the headgear providing him with maps, navigation system, vision and hearing enhancement, sharing view with other team members. Vision may be improved by using night vision or infrared thermal vision as well as image processing which allows to spot enemy units quicker. Soldiers are equipped with a cameras installed on their rifles so they are able to observe battlefield without exposing themselves.

Limitations

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find some pretty interesting facts about user interface solutions in the situations were both hands are engaged with operating rifle. Weather it uses eye tracking or voice commands. The other aspect is how long the system may operate using batteries some sources says that battery last for up to 12 hours [http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/4215725.html].
Another important issue is weight of the system. In one of the sources I’ve found that overall weight is 86 pounds (including all equipment). Which is suppose to be equivalent of weight of average soldiers equipment. Was not able to find weight of system itself.
Soldiers may communicate between themselves in some range, nevertheless it is almost impossible to provide internet access on the battlefield right now.

To sum up this part:
"It's just a bunch of stuff we don't use, taking the place of useful stuff like guns," says Sgt. James Young, who leads a team of four M-240 machine-gunners perched on a balcony during this training exercise at Fort Lewis, Wash. "It makes you a slower, heavier target."
['The Army's New Land Warrior Gear: Why Soldiers Don't Like It': http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/4215715.html]

Disadvantages of the system are still bigger than advantages.

What may be transferred to civil use

There is still long way before this technology become usable in the army. The same applies to the civil use. Nobody is willing to carry extra kilograms on his back. Other aspects like user interface need to be resolved. However there are some projects of devices for tourists providing them with navigation systems. The other are some digital organizers which will be able to provide users with contacts, their schedule etc. even recognition of faces to remind who are the people they are meeting on the street (you will always remember a name :-)

Bibliography

http://radio.weblogs.com/0114726/2003/01/28.html
http://www.se.rit.edu/~jrv/research/ar/introduction.html#Section1.2.3
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/augmented-reality5.htm
http://www.ait.nrl.navy.mil/3dvmel/papers/cp_IITSEC02.pdf

Posted by
Tomasz Pakula