Warfighters develop and maintain their skills through training. Since fully-manned live training in the real world is often too expensive (by many measures), scientists have developed many types of training systems ranging from classroom sessions to those using virtual reality. Recently, researchers have used augmented reality (AR) to insert virtual entities into the real world, attempting to create a low cost, repeatable, and effective substitute for fully-manned live training. However, very little evaluation of the effectiveness of AR for training has been performed. We performed a pilot study to evaluate the use of wearable AR in teaching urban skills, specifically, room clearing in teams. Eight teams of two were briefed on room clearing techniques, given hands-on instruction, and then allowed to practice those techniques with or without the AR system. After this instructional period, subjects performed several room clearing scenarios against real people using infrared-based practice weapons that logged the number of hits on the subjects and the enemy and neutral forces. During these trials, a subject matter expert evaluated how well the subjects applied the room-clearing techniques. In this paper, we describe the pilot study in more detail, including the hardware and software testbed, and then provide an analysis of the results of the pilot study.

The battlefield of the future will require the warfighter to multitask in numerous ways, seriously taxing the cognitive and perceptual capabilities of even the most advanced warrior. A principal concern in developing a better understanding of how current and proposed computational technologies can supplement and augment human performance in this and other environments is determining when such assistance is required. This challenge can be parsed into 2 components: determining what set of measurements accurately reflects cognitive state, and identifying techniques for synthesizing this set of measurements into a single collective cognitive state variable. The primary thesis of this proposal is that automatic human behavioral responses serve as inherent probes for cognitive state. Further, the human perception-action system is uniquely designed to capture, process, integrate, and act on an extraordinarily diverse range of information freely available in the natural environment. Together, this system and the surrounding environment which acts on it-and on which the system acts-form a dynamic coupling. Under normal conditions these couplings remain intact. When stressed, these couplings become degraded. Based on this understanding, the authors propose a unique suite of Cognitive Workload Assessment (CWA) tools, based on real-time measurements of postural control that can serve as both a stand-alone indicator of cognitive state as well as a cueing filter for engaging other CWA sensor suites that are currently under development.