Testing and evaluation of a wearable augmented reality system for natural outdoor environments

David Roberts; Alberico Menozzi; James Cook; Todd Sherrill; Stephen Snarski; Pat Russler; Brian Clipp; Robert Karl; Eric Wenger; Matthew Bennett; Jennifer Mauger; William Church; Herman Towles; Stephen MacCabe; Jeffrey Webb; Jasper Lupo; Jan-Michael Frahm; Enrique Dunn; Christopher Leslie; Greg Welch

doi:10.1117/12.2015621

16 May 2013 Testing and evaluation of a wearable augmented reality system for natural outdoor environments

David Roberts, Alberico Menozzi, James Cook, Todd Sherrill, Stephen Snarski, Pat Russler, Brian Clipp, Robert Karl, Eric Wenger, Matthew Bennett, Jennifer Mauger, William Church, Herman Towles, Stephen MacCabe, Jeffrey Webb, Jasper Lupo, Jan-Michael Frahm, Enrique Dunn, Christopher Leslie, Greg Welch

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 8735, Head- and Helmet-Mounted Displays XVIII: Design and Applications; 87350A (2013) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2015621
Event: SPIE Defense, Security, and Sensing, 2013, Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Abstract

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.

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David Roberts, Alberico Menozzi, James Cook, Todd Sherrill, Stephen Snarski, Pat Russler, Brian Clipp, Robert Karl, Eric Wenger, Matthew Bennett, Jennifer Mauger, William Church, Herman Towles, Stephen MacCabe, Jeffrey Webb, Jasper Lupo, Jan-Michael Frahm, Enrique Dunn, Christopher Leslie, and Greg Welch "Testing and evaluation of a wearable augmented reality system for natural outdoor environments", Proc. SPIE 8735, Head- and Helmet-Mounted Displays XVIII: Design and Applications, 87350A (16 May 2013); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2015621

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