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Augmented Reality, Mini Satellites Exhibited at Pentagon ‘Science Fair’

Every other year, the Defense Department puts on a science fair of sorts in the central courtyard of the Pentagon building.

SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific — the Point Loma lab where the U.S. Navy does some head-turning science — was there with two exhibits on May 18.

The Navy is putting virtual reality (and its cousin, augmented reality) to work in military situations. That job falls to the Battlespace Exploitation of Mixed Reality lab at the facility on Point Loma.

An example of augmented reality is Pokémon Go, which places computer-generated imagery on a real-life landscape.

The BEMR lab’s products include GunnAR, which gives an augmented reality boost to people operating a heavy machine gun aboard a ship. The gunner wears a helmet with a heads up display. A partner (called a gunner liaison officer) uses a computer tablet to view the gunner’s display and instantly send commands to the gunner.

The invention has the potential to shrink the delay between command and action, and improve situational awareness for both gunner and officer. In the future, engineers might link the system to the ship’s onboard navigation system for precision targeting.

A related project is a virtual reality simulator, to be used in training. The virtual reality setup includes a replica of a .50 caliber machine gun aligned to a computer-generated world.

Local Navy scientists also exhibited nanosatellite technology. Nanosatellites are less than a foot long and weigh less than 25 pounds.

Such satellites are cheap: less than $10 million for a first article and less than $1 million for a copy. Inexpensive as they are, they can be launched in multiples. Scientists can also deploy them rapidly: in months rather than years.

The Point Loma systems center is working with the space office at SPAWAR headquarters in Old Town (known as Program Executive Office Space) on some nanosatellite projects.

Lab Day attracted exhibits from 63 defense laboratories, warfare centers and engineering centers across the United States. Other exhibits included the Navy’s railgun, laser weapons, robots, low-cost unmanned aircraft, palm-sized quadcopters and several medical technologies. The U.S. Army exhibited a 4-pound carbon fiber “third arm” to help a soldier better use unwieldy weapons or tools.

Some technologies that begin in government labs wind up later in commercial use. Qualcomm Inc. and Peregrine Semiconductor Corp. are two San Diego companies built on the foundation of government research.

SPAWAR stands for Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command.

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