Third Dimension Technologies (TDT) proposes to develop a holographic 3D Field of Light Display (FoLD) Virtual Reality Sandbox for Mission Planning. Low-level Special Operations missions require flight at or below ground level. Intimate knowledge of the terrain to be covered during a mission is necessary to prevent collision with terrain objects or buildings. Any such collision can result in the loss of aircraft worth hundreds of millions of dollars, not to mention injury or death of the personnel on the flight. Mission success and the lives of aircrew depend on the safe execution of low level flying, clearing obstructions by mere inches at high speeds while under threat from ground fire. Currently available mission planning tools and inefficient charts manually updated by pilots result in unnecessary hazards. The Air Force has a need for Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) data exploitation tools that allow warfighters to plan missions in a 3D virtual battlespace. During Phase I the team will clearly identify potential Air Force end user(s). The team will deeply explore the problems to be solved by the Holographic 3D Virtual Reality Sandbox focusing on specifications for a system that will be most useful to the end user.
