Australia looks to harness ARV capabilities

Potential defence applications of Augmented Reality Visualisation (ARV) have been highlighted during an Australian defence and industry demonstration day on 25 October.

The event - an initiative of Jericho Dawn - involved input from the Defence Science and Technology Group (DST Group) and Saab Australia. 

Holographic software from Saab Australia, and the Microsoft HoloLens, were used to show how defence could harness ARV capabilities for future planning and training applications – something set to be exploited as part of the Royal Australian Air Force’s (RAAF's) transition to a 5th generation fighting force.

The HoloLens – which looks like a cross between normal reading glasses and ski goggles - is a commercial, untethered and self-contained wearable device that allows a user to visualise holographic images and participate in ARV.

Jericho Dawn and DST Group are providing seed funding for Saab Australia - who are a Microsoft partner for the development of applications for use with HoloLens - to design tools for DST Group to demonstrate the future of this capability for the RAAF.

GPCAPT Pete Mitchell, the director of Plan Jericho, said that the success of Jericho and technologies such as HoloLens depended on a careful balance between imagination and innovation.

‘The future could be stated as either limitless or limited by your imagination. ARV is a rapidly emerging technology with possible applications in fields as diverse and far ranging as medical science, research, chemistry, training, education and remote industry application - to name just a few possibilities.

‘It is our job to explore the possibilities ARV can afford air force and this demonstration is one step in examining this potential. As ARV applications become more commercial and mainstream we expect this potential to grow exponentially.’