TY - GEN
T1 - Testing and evaluation of a wearable augmented reality system for natural outdoor environments
AU - Roberts, David
AU - Menozzi, Alberico
AU - Cook, James
AU - Sherrill, Todd
AU - Snarski, Stephen
AU - Russler, Pat
AU - Clipp, Brian
AU - Karl, Robert
AU - Wenger, Eric
AU - Bennett, Matthew
AU - Mauger, Jennifer
AU - Church, William
AU - Towles, Herman
AU - MacCabe, Stephen
AU - Webb, Jeff
AU - Lupo, Jasper
AU - Frahm, Jan Michael
AU - Dunn, Enrique
AU - Leslie, Christoper
AU - Welch, Greg
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - This paper describes performance evaluation of a wearable augmented reality system for natural outdoor environments. Applied Research Associates (ARA), as prime integrator on the DARPA ULTRA-Vis (Urban Leader Tactical, Response, Awareness, and Visualization) program, is developing a soldier-worn system to provide intuitive 'heads-up' visualization of tactically-relevant geo-registered icons. Our system combines a novel pose estimation capability, a helmet-mounted see-through display, and a wearable processing unit to accurately overlay geo-registered iconography (e.g., navigation waypoints, sensor points of interest, blue forces, aircraft) on the soldier's view of reality. We achieve accurate pose estimation through fusion of inertial, magnetic, GPS, terrain data, and computer-vision inputs. We leverage a helmet-mounted camera and custom computer vision algorithms to provide terrain-based measurements of absolute orientation (i.e., orientation of the helmet with respect to the earth). These orientation measurements, which leverage mountainous terrain horizon geometry and mission planning landmarks, enable our system to operate robustly in the presence of external and body-worn magnetic disturbances. Current field testing activities across a variety of mountainous environments indicate that we can achieve high icon geo-registration accuracy (<10mrad) using these vision-based methods.
AB - This paper describes performance evaluation of a wearable augmented reality system for natural outdoor environments. Applied Research Associates (ARA), as prime integrator on the DARPA ULTRA-Vis (Urban Leader Tactical, Response, Awareness, and Visualization) program, is developing a soldier-worn system to provide intuitive 'heads-up' visualization of tactically-relevant geo-registered icons. Our system combines a novel pose estimation capability, a helmet-mounted see-through display, and a wearable processing unit to accurately overlay geo-registered iconography (e.g., navigation waypoints, sensor points of interest, blue forces, aircraft) on the soldier's view of reality. We achieve accurate pose estimation through fusion of inertial, magnetic, GPS, terrain data, and computer-vision inputs. We leverage a helmet-mounted camera and custom computer vision algorithms to provide terrain-based measurements of absolute orientation (i.e., orientation of the helmet with respect to the earth). These orientation measurements, which leverage mountainous terrain horizon geometry and mission planning landmarks, enable our system to operate robustly in the presence of external and body-worn magnetic disturbances. Current field testing activities across a variety of mountainous environments indicate that we can achieve high icon geo-registration accuracy (<10mrad) using these vision-based methods.
KW - Augmented reality
KW - Geo-registered icons
KW - Head tracking
KW - Pose estimation
KW - See-through display
KW - Soldier-worn
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84881161628&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84881161628&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1117/12.2015621
DO - 10.1117/12.2015621
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84881161628
SN - 9780819495266
T3 - Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
BT - Head- and Helmet-Mounted Displays XVIII
T2 - Head- and Helmet-Mounted Displays XVIII: Design and Applications
Y2 - 1 May 2013 through 1 May 2013
ER -