Skip to main content

Virtual Reality Compensatory Aid for Improved Weapon Splash-Zone Awareness

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality (HCII 2021)

Abstract

Military personnel often have very little time to make battlefield decisions. These decisions can include the identification of weapon splash-zones and of the objects in and near that zone. With the advances made in commercially available virtual reality technologies, it is possible to develop a compensatory aid to help with this decision-making process. This paper presents a virtual reality system that was designed to be such an aid. This system was tested in a user study where participants had to identify whether objects were in a splash-zone, where those objects were relative to that splash-zone, and to identify what the objects were. This user study found that the system was well-received by participants as measured by high system usability survey responses. Most participants were able to identify objects with high accuracy and speed. Additionally, throughout the user study participant performance improved to near-perfect accuracy, indicating that the system was quickly learned by participants. These positive results imply that this system may be able to serve as a viable, and easy to learn aid for splash-zone related decision making.

Distribution A - Approved for Public Release (Unlimited Distribution). Document Control Number (DCN #): 43-7564-21.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Aaltonen, I., Laarni, J.: Field evaluation of a wearable multimodal soldier navigation system. Appl. Ergon. 63, 79–90 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Brooke, J.: Sus: a “quick and dirty’ usability”. In: Usability Evaluation in Industry, p. 189 (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Brustein, J.: Microsoft wins $480 million army battlefield contract, November 2018. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-28/microsoft-wins-480-million-army-battlefield-contract

  4. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Instruction, M.: Joint fire support executive steering committee governance and management. Report CJCSI 5127.01A DISTRIBUTION: A, B, C, S (2018). www.jcs.mil/Portals/36/Documents/Library/Instructions/CJCSI%205127.01A.pdf

  5. Chmielewski, M., Kukiełka, M., Fraszczak, D., Bugajewski, D.: Military and crisis management decision support tools for situation awareness development using sensor data fusion. In: Światek, J., Borzemski, L., Wilimowska, Z. (eds.) ISAT 2017. AISC, vol. 656, pp. 189–199. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67229-8_17

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  6. Gans, E., et al.: Augmented reality technology for day/night situational awareness for the dismounted soldier. In: Display Technologies and Applications for Defense, Security, and Avionics IX; and Head-and Helmet-Mounted Displays XX, vol. 9470, p. 947004. International Society for Optics and Photonics (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Hamilton, J.A., Lambert, G., Suss, J., Biggs, A.T.: Can cognitive training improve shoot/don’t-shoot performance? Evidence from live fire exercises. Am. J. Psychol. 132(2), 179–194 (2019). https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.132.2.0179

  8. Livingston, M.A., Ai, Z., Decker, J.W.: Human factors for military applications of head-worn augmented reality displays. In: Cassenti, D.N. (ed.) AHFE 2018. AISC, vol. 780, pp. 56–65. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94223-0_6

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  9. Office of the Naval Inspector General, Navy: Alleged vulnerabilities of the kinetic integrated low-cost software integrated tactical combat handheld (KILSWITCH)/android precision assault strike suite (APASS) application. Report of Investigation, NIGHTS, OSC DI-17-3391 NAVINSGEN 201702142 132 (2018). www.cyber-peace.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/us_navy.pdf

  10. Siu, K.C., Best, B.J., Kim, J.W., Oleynikov, D., Ritter, F.E.: Adaptive virtual reality training to optimize military medical skills acquisition and retention. Mil. Med. 181(suppl 5), 214–220 (2016). https://doi.org/10.7205/MILMEDD1500164

  11. Wickens, C., Dempsey, G., Pringle, A., Kazansky, L., Hutka, S.: Developing and evaluating an augmented reality interface to assist the joint tactical air controller by applying human performance models. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, vol. 62, no. 1, pp. 686–690 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1177/1541931218621155

Download references

Acknowledgments

This effort is based on research supported by the Office of Naval Research under SBIR topic N171-091 “Synthetic Vision System for Ground Forces via Fused Augmented Realities (FAR-UI)”, SV4GF contract # N00014-19-C-2026. We would like to thank Albert Armonda and the ARMY ROTC cadets at Colorado State University.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Adam S. Williams .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Rodriguez, R. et al. (2021). Virtual Reality Compensatory Aid for Improved Weapon Splash-Zone Awareness. In: Chen, J.Y.C., Fragomeni, G. (eds) Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality. HCII 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12770. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77599-5_36

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77599-5_36

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-77598-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-77599-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics