Forum Discussion
Remote Control and Military application
Main Points at the bottom
My idea for the Oculus Rift would be to implement it into a R/C environment such as R/C (remote control) aircraft, cars, boats etc (toys). Obvious benefits of this would be an increase of the general experience by being able to trick your mind into thinking it is in the vehicle that is being operated. Throw in a mic on the vehicle and some 3D headphones and prepare for a new experience entirely.
Another idea is implementing this system into military applications. UAV pilots could use it to give them a more realistic view of what is going on around them which would provide them with better battlefield awareness, and better depth perception. It could also be used to replace a lot of existing hardware that tank gunners use by getting rid of mounted view screens and creating a helmet mounted device with the ability to switch between cameras and gain 360 degree awareness. This also translates into other military vehicles such as troop carriers. Machine/aircraft gunners could also use this which could increase, again, battlefield awareness, depth perception, and make shooting external mounted weapons feel more natural when combined with other technologies which would integrate the user to the weapon system.
Obviously the military already has similar systems in place, it's just a matter of upgrading the systems and removing a lot of bulky monitors. If most of the soldiers riding in a HMMWV were equipped with this, you would be able to maintain 360 awareness that is actually better than looking out the window due to being able to use an optical zoom. The main point of this idea is better integration of the weapon system to the soldier. Perhaps the future of being a machine gunner in any vehicle would be being able to freely move your head and look where you want then hit a button and sync with your weapon and immediately put rounds down range, all while within the relative safety of the vehicle.
The most immediate use for this device would be military training. You could set up entire buildings that would have similuated projections for environmental details to the Oculus Rift. Troops would be able to practice combat maneuvers with simulated enemies through these buildings, and each scenario could be different. This would bring a sense of realism to training that hasn't been seen before. The job that I currently serve in has a training device that is overly expensive and ineffective that serves a similar purpose.
I think that the main reason that the military hasn't done this with non-stereoscopic headsets is due to a few reasons:
-Cost
-Images are limited to a narrow screen
-Images are unrealistic
-It doesn't provide enough integration
Beneficial points
-More enjoyable R/C vehicle/toy experience
-Increased battlefield awareness for the soldiers and their commanders
-Integrate soldiers with hardpoint mounted weapons
-Increased depth perception and reality when tied to appropriate optics
-Getting rid of bulky monitors in both command posts and vehicles
-Provide the potential for a higher degree of viewing field vs. standard optics/monitor viewing field that also feels natural
-Extreme training for a variety of situations
Vision
-Have a simulated experience that ties in with real life, ie. flying toy airplanes that make you think you are actually in them
-Someday have a weapon system where you plug in and you think that the weapon is your arm, simply point and destroy. This would implement multiple pieces of technology that are already available. It's only a matter of merging them
-Augment reality using the Oculus Rift in conjunction with cameras, optics, and software
-Provide training to troops that enhances their experience
My idea for the Oculus Rift would be to implement it into a R/C environment such as R/C (remote control) aircraft, cars, boats etc (toys). Obvious benefits of this would be an increase of the general experience by being able to trick your mind into thinking it is in the vehicle that is being operated. Throw in a mic on the vehicle and some 3D headphones and prepare for a new experience entirely.
Another idea is implementing this system into military applications. UAV pilots could use it to give them a more realistic view of what is going on around them which would provide them with better battlefield awareness, and better depth perception. It could also be used to replace a lot of existing hardware that tank gunners use by getting rid of mounted view screens and creating a helmet mounted device with the ability to switch between cameras and gain 360 degree awareness. This also translates into other military vehicles such as troop carriers. Machine/aircraft gunners could also use this which could increase, again, battlefield awareness, depth perception, and make shooting external mounted weapons feel more natural when combined with other technologies which would integrate the user to the weapon system.
Obviously the military already has similar systems in place, it's just a matter of upgrading the systems and removing a lot of bulky monitors. If most of the soldiers riding in a HMMWV were equipped with this, you would be able to maintain 360 awareness that is actually better than looking out the window due to being able to use an optical zoom. The main point of this idea is better integration of the weapon system to the soldier. Perhaps the future of being a machine gunner in any vehicle would be being able to freely move your head and look where you want then hit a button and sync with your weapon and immediately put rounds down range, all while within the relative safety of the vehicle.
The most immediate use for this device would be military training. You could set up entire buildings that would have similuated projections for environmental details to the Oculus Rift. Troops would be able to practice combat maneuvers with simulated enemies through these buildings, and each scenario could be different. This would bring a sense of realism to training that hasn't been seen before. The job that I currently serve in has a training device that is overly expensive and ineffective that serves a similar purpose.
I think that the main reason that the military hasn't done this with non-stereoscopic headsets is due to a few reasons:
-Cost
-Images are limited to a narrow screen
-Images are unrealistic
-It doesn't provide enough integration
Beneficial points
-More enjoyable R/C vehicle/toy experience
-Increased battlefield awareness for the soldiers and their commanders
-Integrate soldiers with hardpoint mounted weapons
-Increased depth perception and reality when tied to appropriate optics
-Getting rid of bulky monitors in both command posts and vehicles
-Provide the potential for a higher degree of viewing field vs. standard optics/monitor viewing field that also feels natural
-Extreme training for a variety of situations
Vision
-Have a simulated experience that ties in with real life, ie. flying toy airplanes that make you think you are actually in them
-Someday have a weapon system where you plug in and you think that the weapon is your arm, simply point and destroy. This would implement multiple pieces of technology that are already available. It's only a matter of merging them
-Augment reality using the Oculus Rift in conjunction with cameras, optics, and software
-Provide training to troops that enhances their experience
6 Replies
- Except that remote control in military regard is a very poor tactic. Radio communications are easily jammed an hijacked. In condition of modern warfare, the unit must be 100% autonomous, which is either sophisticated AI or live pilot crew. This is why nobody really cares for unmanned crafts and don't pay hopes for these.
Cost is not an issue, however - these guys can afford completely useless piece of junk B-2 that costs $6 billion each. So unless lobbied, nobody will care to bother unless it's more effecient than current approach. - Signal interception is always a concern, but at the same time a lot of this equipment could be strictly closed network use such as in the HMMWV's with the option of streaming. They deal with the interception of signals to UAV's on a daily basis, so this is just a matter of upgrading existing equipment. The military application may or may not be a good idea, I'll leave that up to analysts, but the R/C idea would be awesome for sure.
- I don't think you understand the whole magnitude of radio channel vunerability. There's no such thing as reliable radio channel whatsoever, it doesn't takes sophisticated equipment to completely shut radiocommunications - which is why russian radiojammers from 70's are still in use: because they're still very effecient. Modern radiostations can not only selectively jam enemy transmissions, they can also destroy/disengage enemy raido equipment with targeted EMPs, and they can intercept radio transmissions, and even fake out transmissions to sabotage enemy communications even worse. During my short military service I've been an operator of such device, which was a combination of laptop, amplifier and antenna. It was more of a scouting device that was capable of detecting and locating signal as weak as civilian cell phone (or even wi-fi signal) within several miles radius, precisely enough to target an air strike. Truck-based radio stations having working radius of several tens of miles and higher, and accordingly higher power. Like those things in Red Alert game, except for real.
In case it wasn't obvious, these devices can sabotage ANYTHING that radio-controlled, ranging from cell phones and radios to guided missiles.
And wired channels are subject to sabotage since forever. - I'm not saying that you NECESSARILY have to add new equipment that use more radio frequencies, I'm saying you can replace a ton of equipment that is already in use to make equipment easier to use, and integrate the soldier to the weapon system in a more complete manner. I'm currently serving active duty and I know a lot of the equipment currently in use that could be replaced with a more effective piece of gear. Shooting targets with a hard mounted vulcan machine gun while flying in a troop carrying aircraft isn't easy with a flat screen mounted to your face that has zero depth perception. Of course EMP and signal interception is always a problem that has to be dealth with, but thats not the point. If they were worried about EMP all of the time then the battlefield would look very differently than it does. There is always the balance of having too much electronic equipment and not enough.
- Well you won't have any depth perception with stereoscopic HMD either due to lack of parallax because of high distance, and due to lack of another camera for that matter. Then again, you're stuck with narrow FOV and the camera won't be able to follow your head movements instantaneously, PLUS your head movemnets aren't necessairly have positive effect, there could be parasitic head movements that would completely break your previous viewing angle and you will end up disoriented. There's a lot of tradeoffs involved there, and the only reason why isn't there and HMD is because it's not feasible for the task.
- I wouldn't say that the headtracking is the most important part. It would be cool to have on model R/C aircraft, but in a military application hand control might to better. Obviously it would have to be paired with optics and software to realize fully the depth perception. I really think something like this would increase integration of the machine to it's operator, thus increasing responses to the world around them.
