Phase II Amount
$1,098,764
Commanders, Combat Medics, and Lifesavers work together and face complex and often interdependent tasks, which include mission planning, command and control, communications, and coordination with other team members. There have been great strides made in the advancement of instructional content, however, one area that has lagged is the development of methods to enhance realistic virtual training exercises utilizing additional sensory modalities, specifically haptics. The proposed work will provide new research into the utilization of high-fidelity haptics in immersive simulations and mixed reality (MR) systems by a) Analyzing and optimizing the most advanced haptics systems relative to combat casualty scenarios, b) Developing multiple prototypical training scenarios that utilize haptics technology across a variety of training objectives and across multiple hardware platforms, and c) generating an interoperability platform for inclusion into broader systems including those designed to fit within the US Armys Synthetic Training Environment (STE). Upon completion, we will conduct a usability evaluation to provide insight into the significance of haptics and how it applies to the skills required by Combat Medics. This effort has the potential to benefit the Department of Defense (DOD) medical curriculum to train and better prepare soldiers for hands-on exercises utilizing human patient simulators.
