A Gamified Approach to Training IED Location
So it turns out that the training required to to educate people looking for a bomb under a vehicle is to give them a device that looks like a mirror on the end of a stick and get them to stick it under a car and look in the reflection. Experiential training they call it. Not surprisingly its not exactly got any sense of jeopardy or and attempt to give a sense of variety of vehicles or different places to find the IED (improvised explosive device).
So not surprisingly when I was told about this in an informal conversation I though it could do with a bit of innovation and my solution was to use Augmented Reality.
Augmented Reality is an app that works on a mobile phone. The idea is to take the live stream of pictures that comes from the camera and then draw features over the top. By keeping the image you draw in sync with the movements of the camera it is possible to give the illusion that the video camera is seeing something that in real life doesn’t exist. Here’s an example made for Audi that gives the illusion that in an alternate reality you have a spanky new motor sat outside your garage.
The system relies on the camera “seeing” a marker and replacing it with a 3D rendered image of in this case a car. AR apps have been made by Ikea, Lynx and DFS.
I figured that we could rig an iPad to the end of a “stick” and have it spot a marker on the underside of a table mocked up to appear to be a generic vehicle. Our markers would then be replaced by the underside of an array of vehicles from Land Rovers to Toyota. Furthermore we could make mini “games” where instructors could “hide” suspicious packages and the trainees locate them under a time pressure.
Receiving a positive response to the presentation above I worked with our head of development Craig Weeks to assemble a team. A deadline was set to have a show and tell product for the Small Arms Symposium later that month. As code team SGIL were committed to paying work we found a contractor in none other than Dr David White to help us with the prototyping software with the remaining resource coming from all-round ace designer Gavin Cooper and 3D work Robert Baker.
Apart from the obvious computer art we also needed to fabricate a device to hold an iPad on the end of a pole as well as a rig to replace the table drawn above with something that looked a bit more like a vehicle and less of a coffee table.
After much deliberation, a well expensive quote and a false start we decided to fabricate the “vehicle” prop ourselves. Gavin’s idea was to mount a canvas screen with an image of a Land Rover over a frame constructed of aluminium scaffolding poles. The result was military grade scaffold that frankly could have withstood a nuclear attack let alone an excitable sales force.
To do this I purchased a walking stick from eBay and an iPad in-car mount. Using calipers and a tape measure Gavin and Rob were able to virtually design a fitting that meshed with the off the shelf car mount and walking stick. This was then printed out on our freshly purchased 3D printer. The resulting device was a thing to behold although when demonstrated at the Small Arms Symposium fooled no one…
The results were spectacular and did our combined efforts of a team who are normally responsible for developing virtual products proud. Our efforts were rewarded and my design has since had the University spend cash on attempting to patent the product UK Patent Application Number 1314412.6
FURTHER INFORMATION
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