VE Technologies for Effective Training

Principal Investigator: Mary C. Whitton 
Funding Agency: Office of Naval Research
Agency Number: N00014-04-10101

Abstract
Before making a major financial and personnel time investment in deploying virtual environment technologies for training, it is important to know both that there are no technological show-stoppers and that training, the right training, will occur. The work of this project will address both of those issues. The target application is training for small teams (4 individuals) of Marines for close quarters combat (CQB) for military operations in urban terrain (MOUT). The first technology target is locomotion, i.e. how the user moves through a virtual environment (VE). The proposed work includes developing metrics for human movement through a VE in order to compare the “naturalness” of various locomotion techniques. The work will build on data collected and analysis work begun under an earlier award. Once the metrics are established, in year two the work will move to assessing both motion and task outcomes for MOUT-like tasks, such as rounding a corner and making a shoot/no-shoot decision. In the third year the work will include integrating with devices and software to provide sensory input beyond visuals, e.g. audio, haptics. Task performance studies will be repeated with the enhanced system.