Participant Tracking in Immersive Training and Aiding Environments

Large volume, immersive simulation environments provide a compelling way to train and simulate operational systems.  To provide realism to these training scenarios, tracking the absolute location (both position & orientation) of both the player under training and the devices that the player must interact with becomes important.  In multi-user training environments, each player must also know the absolute locations of the other players for a successful training mission.  In immersive Virtual Reality (VR) training with multiple users in a fixed environment, the absolute position and orientation of the head, weapon or virtual handheld devices (i.e. virtual binoculars) are not as important as resolution, latency and weight.  For Augmented Reality (AR) training, the position and orientation of the display needs to be tracked accurately relative to the same world coordinate system in which objects in the environment are mapped.  We are proposing autonomous tracking solutions that offer a wireless and networkable approach to instrumenting multiple players and devices in an indoor environment with minimal tracking reference infrastructure.  Differing from Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) type tracking approaches, the proposed solutions will meet or exceed AR-type tracking accuracies of 0.1 degree in angle and 3 mm in position. BENEFIT: If a tracking system can be developed that integrates with COTS networked wearable computing equipment with minimal or no infrastructure set-up, then this same equipment can be used in a field simulation training system with an added benefit over conventional location-based simulators: it can be deployed in the field and used to maintain skills without returning to U.S. training camps, or even to perform specific mission rehearsal scenarios just before a military operation. If furthermore this tracking system can be made battle-hard and covert (does not emit sound, RF, or NVG-detectable infrared radiation) then it could potentially have dual use in both field-deployed training and actual military operations. Our approach is extremely low-cost, easy to integrate with a wearable computer and headset for simple VR or AR interaction by using advanced vision-based wide area tracking, and provides the proven robustness, resolution and low latency of MEMS inertial tracking.