Research Summaries

Back Effectiveness of Training Systems that Employ Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Touchscreen Displays

Fiscal Year 2019
Division Research & Sponsored Programs
Department NPS Naval Research Program
Investigator(s) Sadagic, Amela
Sponsor NPS Naval Research Program (Navy)
Summary Recent emergence of low-cost commercial off the shelf virtual reality, augmented reality, touchscreen displays, and a variety of input devices, and a potential they have in addressing the needs of large number of potential users, have raised the hopes and interest of stakeholders in many domains including DoD. Systemic application of those systems in operations and training of preventive and corrective maintenance of mechanical components on Navy ships and installations would have major impacts on operational readiness. A prominent gap that still exist is concerned with mapping of novel technologies, their sensory modalities and technical capabilities with specific needs exercised by end users. Those user needs are not only reflected in type of skills, desired proficiency levels and retention rates, but also in standards of performances to be reached, forms of delivery and throughput that should be supported.

We propose to engage in a series of research activities aimed at developing a comprehensive approach that would fill that gap and provide stakeholders with necessary guidance and criteria they can use to select optimal solution for teaching of operations and maintenance courses for surface Navy sailors. Our research will include thorough review of literature dedicated to this type of topics, field visits to school houses (A and C schools, operations-based courses), discussions with stakeholders, collection of data that provide comprehensive understanding about user needs, and creation of guidance tool to support selection of optimal training system for specific user needs. Special emphasis will be given to benefits that each system offers, their advantages and disadvantages, and potential issues with large scale adoption. The work will illustrate best use cases, and produce set of recommendations on what future capabilities and systems should be considered to best support the needs of surface Navy sailors. Collaboration with USMC TECOM will also be pursued.
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Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal