A First Exploration on the Use of Head-Mounted Augmented Reality in the Context of the Portuguese Military

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In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a first iteration of an augmented reality (AR) system for dismounted soldiers in the Portuguese military. We started the work via a survey of 86 members of the military to better understand their experience, needs, and preferences with current Command & Control (C2) systems. We then assessed the effects of our prototype on the performance, situational awareness, and perceived usability and workload of 13 participants from a local Commando Regiment. We compared our results to a representative baseline using a paper map and radio in a hostage extraction simulation and found that our first AR iteration, despite a short practice session, increased the quality of the information available and decreased the complexity, temporal demands, and effort required to complete the study tasks; leading to an overall decrease in perceived workload. Overall, participants described the AR experience as more user-friendly. We conclude our case study with research ideas for further iterations of our prototype.