Tag: military technology

A new tech from Purdue U. and Indiana University School of Medicine will guide docs with AR instructions.

Scientists working together at Purdue University and the Indiana University School of Medicine have come up with a new augmented reality based technology designed to assist military surgeons to complete vital procedures on the battlefield.

The tech will offer them guidance through both visual and audio assistance from remote specialists.

The idea is to use more than just verbal instructions when these military surgeons are coping with challenging trauma cases. While there are already systems in existence that give physicians located far away the ability to mark up video that is sent to him or her from a surgeon who is already working on a patient, there are some drawbacks to the current method. For example, though the video is from the perspective of the surgeon actually conducting the procedure, the notes from the assisting remote surgeon are displayed on a monitor nearby. This requires the surgeon to continually look away from the patient and the screen where the instructions are being shown. This new augmented reality based technology could change that.

The System for Telementoring with Augmented Reality (STAR) displays the information before the surgeon’s eyes.

It provides more than notes made on a video screen. Instead, it offers a more natural way of sharing information between two doctors who are on different parts of the planet. This allows them to use the overlay of AR technology to display notes or indicate specific positions on the patient that indicates particular points on the anatomy so that the surgeon is seeing it over his or her reality instead of on a screen.

This augmented reality technology offers a few different visual recognition algorithms in order to make sure that the text remains stable above the applicable locations, even if the surgeon changes his or her view away from the field of view where the text applies. This system uses transparent overlay on top of the working field so that a remote surgeon can point things out and add text right in front of the surgeon’s eyes without ever requiring the surgeon to look away from what he or she is doing.

New AR systems could potentially make a very big difference in complex emergency response.

A team of British engineers is currently developing a new form of augmented reality technology that could become highly usable for the improvement of military operation emergency responses.

The idea is to design the AR tech into highly mobile devices that can be used while in the field.

Among the various applications for the augmented reality emergency response technology includes a portable command center the size of a briefcase. That would be easy to transport and to use in a broad range of different types of emergency situation. Another type of AR tech under development includes a form of wearable device that pilots could use as a type of portable cockpit in order to enhance their awareness.

The British engineers who are working on this augmented reality technology are from BAE Systems.

They have joined University of Birmingham researchers in order to come up with a number of concepts that involve mixed reality that provide the user with the ability to view their actual surroundings combined with virtual images, objects, video feeds, avatars and other types of usable content.

BAE Systems futurist, Nick Colosimo, explained that both virtual and AR technology are becoming increasingly commonplace in consumer products. This has opened up a broad range of potential for that market, but has also revealed the type of benefits that it could provide to the military and armed forces.

These various types of mobile device use an AR headset that has been compared to the Oculus Rift. The use of that gadget will make it possible for commanders to direct various forms of military operation, regardless of whether they involve the use of drones or troops, by viewing a virtual representation of the real situation. The device can also be implemented as a powerful training solution.

The researchers who are working on this augmented reality technology have stated that the headsets may one day be replaced with alternatives as small as eyeglasses or even contact lenses, as the tech continues to develop. University of Birmingham professor and simulation and human factors specialist, Bob Stone, explained that “Since my first virtual reality experience at NASA nearly 30 years ago, the technology has evolved from the primitive head-mounted displays and computers to today’s world where we can interact with complex virtual objects, integrated in real-time with real-world scenarios.”