Augmented Reality Technician Trainer (ART2)

To apply current technological advances in AR and instructional science to benefit AF maintenance training, IAI proposes to build Augmented Reality Technician Training for the AF. Under Navy sponsorship, we have created exemplar AR-based tutors for the Center for Naval Aviation Technical Training (CNATT). After our sponsors evaluated our tutor at NAS Jacksonville, they said the results were “better than expected.� The trip report and streaming video of screen captures from AR are available through links in the proposal. The Navy has asked us for a proposal to continue that work. The technology we use combines COTS programming systems, Unity3D and Vuforia. The combination provides an excellent technological capability that will evolve as the two programming systems are updated. The instructional theory uses a “coached practice environment,� which, when applied in non-AR simulations, yielded striking training benefits with affordable development costs. Studies shows (1) twenty hours of training produced the same performance as four years of On the Job Experience, and one hour of training added to a 12 day course improved post-test scores by more than 1 standard deviation. For Phase I we plan to learn AF needs, modify our AR-training for that need, and test with Airmen.