BATMAN wearing Google Glass may soon come to the rescue in a battlefield near you

  • Published
  • By Laura McGowan
  • 88 Air Base Wing Public Affairs
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE --  The Battlefield Air Targeting Man Aided kNowledge (BATMAN) team led by Gregory Burnett, BATMAN chief engineer, 711 Human Performance Wing, Human Effectiveness Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, here, is testing the use of Google Glass (GG). The hope is that this technology could assist Airmen on the front line.

The Human Performance Wing's fact sheet explains their mission "is to advance human performance in air, space and cyberspace through research, education and consultation," and their goal is to "support [our] most critical resource--the men and women of our operational military forces."

This study is not a coordinated effort with GG, but the 711 HPW acquired two sets last year through Google's Explorer Program. Their study of its use with tablets or smart phones is to complement those devices and not replace them. Within the Air Force, the pararescue jumpers (PJs) are one of the groups who could find value using GG on the battlefield and during humanitarian missions.

GG is one of a many emerging technologies being studied to see if it can help enhance the warfighter's ability to receive and send critical information, during wartime or humanitarian roles.

"With Google Glass, we assess human performance, trying to improve the warfighter's enhanced situational awareness," said Burnett. "[This provides] them [with] the information in an intuitive manner at the critical times in the chaos of war."

Burnett explained that the BATMAN team's 13 military, DoD contractors and civil servants study findings are shared with the U.S. Navy as well as the U.S. Army.

"We recently did an experiment [with] GG," said 2Lt. Krystin Shanklin, a behavioral scientist and a lead within the BATMAN program. "We're trying to see how a [PJ] would use the device while multitasking with different distractions."

The purpose of studying the use of GG with distractions is to closely mimic what might actually happen on the battlefield.

She said, "We're about to launch another experiment where we're focusing on the human computer interaction [and] how the [individual] interacts with the software and also the hardware."

"For GG, it would be the track pad, the adjustable screen and the voice command," Shanklin said.

Burnett goes on to explain that the distractions provide contextual information, and the operator is then able to interact with the information while performing a primary task like walking or driving, and [then they can provide feedback] to determine if those tasks and interactions are a distraction or not.

"Since the display is above your eye, it doesn't get in the way when you're using it," said Andres Calvo, a software engineer and contractor with Ball Aerospace and member of the BATMAN team. "When you need to access information, you just look up, or you touch on the track pad."

He said, "There are situations when a PJ has to monitor many patients at one time. They can take out medical monitors and attach [them] to the patients, monitoring them remotely."

"They can get a feel for how their patients are doing, and if one patient is more critical than others, that info can be presented in GG," Calvos said.

The BATMAN team members are very excited about the possibilities GG brings to the warfighter and hope that it may be able to be used in the field in the near future.