Augmented Reality for Mission Command

Army Commanders often have only as much information about their environment as they can perceive with their own unaided senses and can mentally picture based on subordinate reports. Current tools such as Nett Warrior provide new ways of visualizing information, but require looking down into a computer screen. New tools such as augmented reality (AR) have the potential to make digital information more readily accessible while also allowing soldiers to continue to observe their surroundings. New AR technologies are quickly arriving in the marketplace and have the potential to improve commander situational awareness. However, there has not been a systematic needs assessment across Army warfighter functions, nor an assessment of the technology itself to meet the needs. To fill this gap, we propose to correlate Army warfighting functions against the current state of the art in augmented reality technology including visualization, imaging, and human computer interaction. We will assess situational awareness needs for commanders, the immersive needs for training, and ways to interact naturally with the AR information. We will select a specific application of these technologies that would have a broad impact across Army warfighter functions and conduct a deep analysis to understand the specific information and display requirements.