Dispersed Command Post Technology: Virtual Environments

For survivability, future command posts will be established and operate in a dispersed configuration. Each commander and staff officer will operate from a small, highly mobile command element. Current C3 systems based primarily on voice and text transmission will not adequately support such a command environment. The proposed effort will result in a videoconferencing architecture that supports unlimited dispersion by providing new levels of face-to-face communications capability and a wide range of cooperative multimedia decision making tools. The design will apply state-of-the-art virtual reality techniques to create a "virtual command post" (VCP) for each dispersed command element. Each user's VCP will resemble a virtual meeting room, with incoming video and audio from other conferencees located at consistent positions in the user's virtual environment. Each local VCP will also display auxiliary video and pen tablet graphics input from other conferencees, as well as a synthetic or real-time aerial view of any selected battle zone, including intelligent graphical overlays, real-time annotations, and fused real-time sensor data. The system will be made man-portable using a novel microminiature see-through head-mounted display and a body-mounted miniature camera.