IMPROVING PERFORMANCE IN PILOT TRAINING BY USING THE CHAIR FLYING TECHNIQUE

Real-time color blending of rendered and captured video Erik Reinhard, Ahmet Oguz Akyuz, Mark Colbert, Charles E Hughes School of Computer Science University of Central Florida Orlando FL Matthew O’Connor Institute for Simulation and Training University of Central Florida Orlando FL Augmented reality involves mixing captured video with rendered elements in real-time. For augmented reality to be effective in training and simulation applications, the computer generated components need to blend in well with the captured video. Straightforward compositing is not sufﬁcient, since the chromatic content of video and rendered data may be very different such that it is immediately obvious which parts of the composited image were rendered and which were captured. We propose a simple and effective method to color-correct the computer generated imagery. The method relies on the computation of simple statistics such as mean and variance, but does so in an appropriately chosen color space - which is key to the effectiveness of our approach. By shifting and scaling the pixel data in the rendered stream to take on the mean and variance of the captured video stream, the rendered elements blend in very well. Our implementation currently reads, color-corrects and composites video and rendered streams at a rate of more than 22 frames per second for a 720x480 pixel format. Without color correction, our implementation generates around 30 frames per second, indicating that our approach comes at a reasonably small computational cost. 2004 Paper No. 1502 This paper is available on the 2004 I/ITSEC CD ROM. Order it from I/ITSEC'S Website.
The Future of Mixed Reality: Issues in Illumination and Shadows Charles E. Hughes, Jaakko Konttinen, Sumanta N. Pattanaik School of Computer Science University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Mixed Reality (MR) is a blending of real and virtual objects. How well that blending works is critical to a user’s experience within an MR scenario. The focus of this paper is on the visual aspects of this blending; other senses such as sound and haptics are covered elsewhere. Blending the real and virtual realities in MR requires that the virtual objects react properly to changes in real lighting and that the real react properly to the insertion of virtual lights (e.g., a virtual flashlight). Even more challenging, virtual objects must cast shadows on real objects and vice versa. Making this realistic means that all such interactions must occur at interactive rates (30+ frames per second). Our research focuses on algorithmic development and implementation of these procedures on programmable graphics units (GPUs) found commonly on today’s commodity graphics cards. The algorithms we develop are tailored to take advantage of the parallel pipeline architecture of GPUs and to carefully avoid some of the limitations found in currently available versions of these units. 2004 Paper No. 1883 This paper is available on the 2004 I/ITSEC CD ROM. Order it from I/ITSEC'S Website.
An Integrated Procedure for Measuring the Spatial and Temporal Resolution of Visual Displays Marc D. Winterbottom Air Force Research Laboratory Mesa, AZ 85296 George A. Geri Link Simulation and Training Mesa, AZ 85296 Bill Morgan The Boeing Company Mesa, AZ 85296 Byron J. Pierce Air Force Research Laboratory Mesa, AZ 85296 Spatial and temporal resolution are two of the most fundamental characteristics of visual displays, and yet they are often incorrectly defined and specified. In order to address this problem, we have developed techniques for estimating both spatial and temporal resolution, and we have compared the resulting estimates to data obtained from perceptual tasks. The spatial resolution technique is based on a VESA standard (FPDM, Ver. 2.0), and was applied to several CRT displays. It was found that the pixel count does not adequately define display resolution when the former exceeds the bandwidth of the display device. In addition, the spatial resolution measurements were found to correlate well with perceptual assessments of the orientation of target aircraft simulated at various distances. The temporal resolution technique involved measuring the response of various displays to simple light patterns that could be flickered at up to 30 Hz. Data obtained for CRT projectors indicated that temporal artifacts obtained with these devices are due primarily to the limited frame rate of the image generator, rather than to limitations in the temporal response of the projectors. In addition, data obtained from liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) projectors indicated that their on- and off-responses are short enough to support 60 Hz simulator frame rates, but that the hold-time used to maximize image luminance interacts with eye movements to produce temporal artifacts that can reduce the quality of the displayed imagery. The results of a perceptual test, based on the perceived separation of moving lines, were consistent with the measured temporal resolution of the two displays. All measurement and analysis techniques described here have been implemented in a software package that is available from AFRL, Mesa, Arizona. 2004 Paper No. 1855 This paper is available on the 2004 I/ITSEC CD ROM. Order it from I/ITSEC'S Website.
A Validation Methodology for Human Behavior Representation Models Lieutenant Colonel Simon R. Goerger, Ph.D. Colonel Michael L. McGinnis, Ph.D. United States Military Academy Department of Systems Engineering West Point, NY Rudolph P. Darken, D.Sc. Naval Postgraduate School Modeling, Virtual Environments & Simulation Monterey, CA The Department of Defense relies heavily on mathematical models and computer simulations to analyze and acquire new weapon systems. Models and simulations help decision-makers understand the differences between systems and provide insights into the implications of weapon system tradeoffs. Given this key role, the credibility of simulations is paramount. For combat models, this is gained through the verification, validation, and accreditation process required of DoD analytical models prior to their use in weapon system acquisition and other studies. The nature of nondeterministic human behavior makes validation of models of human behavior representation contingent on the judgments of subject matter experts that are routinely acquired using a face validation methodology. In an attempt to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of assessing human behavior representation using experts, and the face validation methodology, the authors conducted experiments to identify issues critical to utilizing human experts for the purpose of ascertaining ways to enrich the validation process for models relying on human behavior representation. The research was limited to the behaviors of individuals engaged in close combat in an urban environment. This paper presents the study methodology, data analysis, and recommendations for mitigating attendant problems with validation of human behavior representation models 2004 Paper No. 1589 This paper is available on the 2004 I/ITSEC CD ROM. Order it from I/ITSEC'S Website.
Opening Up New Possibilities: Simulation-Based Tactics Mining Sui Qing, Yeo Ye Chuan, How Khee Yin, Tan Poey Guan DSO National Laboratories 20 Science Park Drive, Singapore 118230 Modeling and Simulation (M&S) has been effectively made use of by the military for applications like training and supporting acquisition decisions. This paper proposes a new technology called Simulation Based Tactics Mining (SBTM) which will open up new possibilities for military applications of M&S systems. The goal of SBTM is to explore the use of machine learning techniques to enable one or more simulated agents to learn novel ways of task execution through interaction with the simulated environment. For instance, SBTM could enable the military to use an M&S environment to explore the space of possible tactics for a system of unmanned platforms to engage a system of ground targets. Another example is to use SBTM on robotic simulation systems to automatically acquire the rules for a system of multiple robots to search and localize multiple targets. The rules acquired by SBTM from robotic simulation environment can then be tested on actual physical robots. 2004 Paper No. 1494 This paper is available on the 2004 I/ITSEC CD ROM. Order it from I/ITSEC'S Website.
Adaptive and Modular M&S Configuration for Increased Reusability Nathalie Harrison, Bruno Gilbert, Alfred Jeffrey, Marc Lauzon, Richard Lestage Defence R&D Canada - Valcartier Quebec, Canada In the context of Modeling and Simulation (M&S) proliferation, modelers can take advantage of a Model-Driven Development (MDD) approach to increase the reuse of their models within different implementation frameworks. However, this MDD approach can still lead to monolithic M&S components of limited reusability. This paper focuses on the simulation modeling phase of a MDD approach applied to M&S. It presents a novel XML-based method to increase the reusability of M&S components through fine granularity. Granular instance-specific data elements are associated to granular generic model elements. Configurable simulation modeling data include model parameters, entity composition, scenario composition and log configuration. These elements can be reused through various models, scenarios and frameworks. The data and the components are assembled at run-time to build a specific simulation application. This method has been implemented in a M&S process designed for weapon system modelers who need to integrate their models into different simulation frameworks. The reusability of the resulting model components and XML data files was demonstrated in instantiating engagement simulations with various entities dynamically composed of defensive self-protection suites and weapon sub- systems having different parameters. An adaptive M&S configuration tool was developed to support this flexibility. It allows to create compositions and to dynamically display new parameters in adapting itself to the content of the XML data files. Simulation modeling, including scenario creation, is considered to be the entry point of any simulation framework. However, the model component interoperability is often limited since it is generally related to proprietary file formats and graphical user interfaces. It is believed that the method proposed in this paper could increase the interoperability and ease the exchange of models if XML schemas were standardized. 2004 Paper No. 1864 This paper is available on the 2004 I/ITSEC CD ROM. Order it from I/ITSEC'S Website.
Low Cost Virtual Cockpits for Air Combat Experimentation MAJ Chien Wei Chia, Ph.D. Singapore Armed Forces Centre for Military Experimentation (SCME), Future Systems Directorate (FSD), Ministry of Defence, Singapore The preamble in any experimentation usually involves a stage known as “screening” (Montgomery, 2001) or “discovery” (Alberts & Hayes, 2002). In general, the idea behind this stage is to identify the major independent variables that appear to have greater influences on the measures so that subsequent stages could be more focused on the important variables. This paper describes the research in which an innovative solution for a simulation environment was found to more cost-efficiently enable air combat discovery experimentation. In essence, the investigation was to see how the limited 60 degrees field of view imposed by a single display desktop virtual cockpit system could be circumvented cost efficiently. The solution in this case was the addition of a 2D display augmentation that provides information of what would be acquired visually by the pilots up in the air. The challenge was to decide the manner in which the information will be portrayed on this display. The human factors literature provided the guiding light during the research and helped narrow the effort down to an experiment with the Frames of Reference problem, i.e. deciding whether it should be egocentric or exocentric. With these insights an experiment was designed to benchmark the performance of the solution. The performances of 6 operational pilots were compared in four environments (domed simulator, desktop with no augmentation, desktop with egocentric augmentation and desktop with exocentric augmentation.) using a full-factorial experiment design with 3 replicates each. The outcome of the experiment showed that there was no statistical difference between the performance of the domed simulator and the desktop with the egocentric augmentation. 2004 Paper No. 1596 This paper is available on the 2004 I/ITSEC CD ROM. Order it from I/ITSEC'S Website.
Advanced Message Routing for Scalable Distributed Simulations Brian Barrett University of Southern California Marina del Rey, CA Thomas Gottschalk California Institute of Technology