Mixed Reality in military applications. A pilot study with certain focus on integration of gaze-tracker and head mounted displays
Publish date: 2003-01-01
Report number: FOI-R--0857--SE
Pages: 64
Written in: Swedish
Abstract
By the development of systems measuring an operators gaze and head direction new possibilities to acquire, transfer, graphical generate, mix and display image information arises. Research work within this area belongs to the interdisciplinary field of research called ´Mixed Reality´, MR, which is described in the report. To achieve a greater perspective on how MR can be used in military applications, a number of individuals from the national defence, the defence industry and the university have been interviewed. Based upon these interviews a number of potential military applications are presented and discussed. MR-techniques are able to give us fantastical systems from a technical point of view but the system must also fulfil its purpose from a human point of view. Human factors are a part of MR and related questions regarding this issue also considered. One MR application area is ´technical support´, where virtuel image information (instructions, exploded views, etc.) is displayed in front of the eyes of an operator. Detecting the gaze direction in applications like this, crucial advantages can be obtained. The integration of a head-mounted micro-display system and a gaze direction sensor is therefore given extra attention in the report. Finally, a perspicuous table of a probable evolution of MR-systems and theirs applications are presented.