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As a rule of thumb the first people who are going
to use extensively the wearables are the people
whose work is a matter of life and death.
It is very important in an army to have an edge other the enemy,
that is what we have always seen in history, and moreover the army
is known to spend vast amount of money in order to get this edge.
Some years ago the infantryman was ordered to carry different pieces of ordnance that came
from different sources and were not part of a whole thing, and to try
to do his best with theses ( looks like Frankenstein to me ). With theses
new projects the infantryman is the centerpiece of a coherent,
complementary weapons and equipment system.
- Australian Army.
In Australia there is a program called Land 125 Soldier Combat System
( formerly "Wundurra"
( the aboriginal word for Warrior ) ), there is some information
on
DTSO's website; and according to the
ATSE this project should be on phase 2 on year 2000/2001.
According to DTSO the soldiers should have intra-section radios, night
vision and sighting capability and head up display.
- French Forces.
In France there is a project called FELIN ( Fantassin à Equipement et
Liaison Integrées ( Foot soldier with integrated equipment and links )
)
in order to enhance the efficiency of the soldier a set of devices had
been developed with very careful limitations : historically the foot
soldier has been a beast of burden, thus the FELIN project wishes
to limit its load at 25kg. The soldier has got a radio link, a
computer and a camera on his weapon ( allowing him to open fire from
cover ). The display is done with a monocular HMD.
- UK Forces.
The FIST ( Future Integrated Soldier Technology ) project:
Early tests were conducted on Salisbury Plain to determine if the
soldier could access information either 'Head Up' ( in a helmet
display ), 'Head Down' ( on a wrist mounted display ), via a palmtop
computer or if necessary a map
lessons learned ( in L'armement issue 67 September 1999 )
- There is no scope for enhancing soldier performance through the
provision of tactical information unless the soldier can access
information 'on the move'
- The preference, both by day and night was the helmet display.
The FIST Digitization Trials will be conducted on Salisbury Plain in
June and November 2000. The June trial addresses information flow, the
November trial will address the benefits of enhanced information to
determine if there is a consequent increase in the 'Tempo of Operation'.
- US Forces
- The land warrior program
It is a system made of 5 subsystems cooperating together.
- A Pentium Computer/Radio Subsystem (C/RS) made by Motorola
featuring an integrated GPS receiver
- The Protective Clothing and Individual Equipment Subsystem
(PCIE) made by Gentex
- The Weapon Subsystem (WS) made
by Raytheon
- The Software Subsystem made by Raytheon
- The Integrated Helmet Assembly Subsystem
(IHAS) made by Honeywell
The location of each squad member will be available through the IHAS,
as well as digitized maps and tactical information.
Every soldier will have an integrated GPS as well as video recording capabilities.
Of course the soldier will have night vision capability as well as
deported sighting. Tests should take place during year 2000.
More info on the Land Warrior program at
http://www.sbccom.army.mil/programs/lw/index.htm ( There is even a FAQ and pictures ).
AFAIK this is going to be the biggest test for the wearable concept
because the Army is planning to purchase 34000 units plus spares.
- The navy.
During the summer 1999 news poured that the US Navy tested the Virtual Retinal
Display at Hawaii. The explanation is that there doesn't seem to be
enough space in the fighting ships because of the numerous CRT, so it
is conceivable for the crew to wear VRDs
Needless to say, that some very low profile and highly specialized
units should have adopted the wearable concept but as far as we cannot
have evidence we can only speculate on that.
The
Microvison's VRD has been
delivered to the Wallace Kettering
Neuroscience Institute, Dayton Ohio, for neurosurgery
applications.
This is not a full featured wearable solution but it is
a big step toward the adoption of wearables in health care activity.
( on the website you can view a
simulated image ).
Firefighters are using thermal cameras in order to see through the
smoke, in the next years theses devices should be miniaturized and
with a wearable firefighters should have both hands free and will have
real time access to data such as the map of the building and numerous
helpful informations.
One can easily think that a wearable computer can be very helpfull for
the disabled people, for example for blind people a wearable with a GPS
receiver, some maps of the surroundings and even more, interacting with
its surroundings by means of active beacons can be a very good
substitute for a dog, the elements exists for a long time.
This should be easily done : the linux comunity has good text to speech
applications, voice recognition is quite ready for this application
, the IrDA or Modem radio drivers are OK, the same applies
to the GPS programs, we have to develop an electronic blind walking
stick in order to detect the obstacles at a much reater range and
last, but not the least to convince the autorities.
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