Augmented Reality Compensatory Aid for Improved Weapon Splash-Zone Awareness

One of the most important roles of the joint terminal attack controller (JTAC) in combat scenarios is accurately and efficiently communicating scene information with attack aircraft pilots. In this experiment we tested how the use of a north-up instant situational awareness display (ISA) impacts the performance of a task similar to the ones performed by JTACs, in terms of accuracy and response time. This experiment was a follow-up to verify the results of a previous experiment performed in virtual reality. The task involved determining the location of boxes relative to other boxes in an environment viewed from different simulated directions. An augmented reality head mounted display (AR-HMD) was used to project the ISA above the task as well as present the answers to the subject. Results showed an improvement in response time when subjects used the ISA after the control condition, and little change when the ISA was presented first. Participants who scored the lowest in accuracy appeared to benefit the most from the ISA. As expected, both the error rate and response time were lower in the north and south orientations versus the east and west directions.