

Military-Grade Augmented Reality Could Redefine Modern Warfare - ca98am79
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/military_grade_augmented_reality_could_redefine_modern_warfare.php

======
RobKohr
There is someone in a town that wants to kill you, and you want to kill them.

Does having call signs above your friend's head help you? Does carrying extra
gear help you? Do little popups from an overworked person in HQ help you who
is now managing like 300 troops?

Your eyes and your ears help you. Your spirt helps you. Give someone an iphone
with things to click on and their attention is no longer in the real world.
You have to be there, with the universe in focus and all of the gifts you were
born with to get you through it. Though a hunk of body armor and a helmet
helps too.

Augmented reality distracts from the real thing.

~~~
bluemetal
Poorly designed augmented reality will distract you. But well thought out and
relevant augmentation might just save lives. Keeping things minimal and
training soldiers to use the systems (and I mean clocking up serious hours,
like they would have to) would help to minimize any risk distraction might
introduce. Surely there exists some area between very densely packed
information pouring into your display, and no information at all, where the
cost of paying attention to it is outweighed by the benefit of being informed.

