Military Insider's Guide to Extended Reality (VR/AR/MR)

This episode, continuing our Education series, Tom and Colin are joined by Ian Ferguson who is a QGI working at the Royal School of Artillery, teaching and advising on simulation and training matters for the British Army. Ian has spent the last 3 years working in the Simulation Wing of the RSA, trialling and experimenting with a range of XR technologies. (We would like to note that the views expressed on this podcast are from Ian’s personal experience, and do not necessarily reflect the position of the UK Ministry of Defence).

Ian provides a helpful overview and clarification, covering:

• XR, VR, MR and AR terms
• Considerations for selecting VR systems
• Common issues with XR systems (nausea, compute power, cloud access)
• Likely development direction for key technologies

As ever, this topic is deeper than it initially appears. Ian guides us through a discussion around some of the strengths and weaknesses of the various technologies that are involved in XR systems, with some strategies and approaches for dealing with introducing systems into the training pipeline.

Tom provides a bit more detail on the challenge he’s set within the Synthetic Internet that Colin will face in a forthcoming episode. How’s that for a cliffhanger?

Conducttr is a hybrid warfare/crisis simulation platform that supports a wide range of realistic command post and field exercises. Its synthetic Internet delivers a realistic virtual information environment ideal for exercising in information operations, media operations, social media, OSINT, cyber, CIMIC, and foreign affairs as well homeland security, counter-terrorism and humanitarian disaster relief.

Conducttr can be used solo or with operational systems (as a “digital wrap”) during live exercises that can last from an hour to several weeks. Available on cloud, on premises with VMware and deployable on laptop as needed.

• Tom Constable: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-constable/
• Colin Hillier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinhillier/

• Ian Ferguson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-ferguson-12a492130/

• Sword of Damocles: https://vrsource.com/meet-the-sword-of-damocles-the-first-vr-headset-in-the-world-17233/
• Website: https://www.warfighterpodcast.com/
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