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Tech Success: 'Heads up' takes on fresh meaning for Army

Sep-13-2004 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

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By BRAD GRIMES

Wearable computing technology lets Stryker commanders see more than the battlefield
If you want to know what it's like to be a commander in a brigade of Army Stryker armored vehicles, do 70 knee bends.

It's not that commanders are exercise nuts, although they're undoubtedly fit. Rather, it's that cutting-edge technology sometimes leads to unintended consequences. Such was the case with the 3rd Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division, the Army's first high-tech Stryker Brigade.

During Operation Iraqi Freedom, military units were equipped with Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2) systems developed by Northrop Grumman Corp. of Los Angeles. The so-called Blue Force Tracker system provides situational awareness by showing allied and enemy positions on a digital map.

Although the system was praised for its effectiveness, commanders faced an interesting challenge. They couldn't monitor the FBCB2 screens inside their vehicles and watch the battlefield at the same time.

"They'd have to duck into the vehicle, check the displays and pop back out of the hatch," said Bruce Westcoat, market segment manager for aerospace and defense at Microvision Inc. of Bothell, Wash. "They said they were doing this 70 to 80 times an hour. Think about doing 70 to 80 deep knee bends an hour, then think about the vehicle doing 60 miles per hour over rough terrain."

Last September, the 3rd Stryker Brigade solved this problem by adapting a wearable display system that Microvision was rolling out at automotive companies such as American Honda Motor Co.

Microvision developed a helmet-mounted device that creates a virtual, see-through computer screen in the user's line of vision. At Honda, it lets technicians view computer diagrams while looking at the vehicle they're working on. In the Stryker Brigade, the system, dubbed the Nomad Helmet-Mounted Display, lets commanders view their FBCB2 displays while surveying the battlefield. [...]


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