Innovative Training Solutions (e.g. AR, VR, MR)

As the Air Force advances in its technological and operational capabilities, it is more important than ever to develop airman using the most effective tools and processes. This has raised the profile and importance of several training missions including pilot training and maintenance training. The Air Force is seeking to develop innovative systems or prototypes that complement and/or supplement training for Air Force members. It is required that any solution integrate well with other existing solutions, keep pace with future technology and be closely tied to commercial technologies. One innovative approach to enhance training is to use alternate reality technologies, which are rapidly being developed in the commercial markets. However, most of the existing off-the-shelf technologies are tailored for the gaming industry. Our approach will be to leverage that work and develop an alternate reality system that starts with augmented reality basic training and advances to a virtual reality immersive training environment. We will develop our approach through a feasibility study to identify and determine the effectiveness of existing hardware and content solutions and upcoming products for an existing training platform. Then we will develop a set of requirements to develop a specific training platform for the Air Force.