ITGS Oculus Rift

Paper 2 ITGS Oculus Virtual reality Headsets on Battlefield simulations

It's not only soldiers who need to train for life-threatening situations on the battlefield.

Experts have created a learning tool for army medics so they, too, can practice treating the wounded before putting themselves in the line of fire.

A 360-degree virtual training program has been created using the Oculus Rift headset to prepare the medical teams for the realities of war. 

Putting on the Rift replaces your field of vision with a digital image. Turning your head left changes your perspective in the simulation as well, which creates the sensation that you are inside the game. People who work with virtual reality call that feeling “presence.” When you obtain it, your body can’t always distinguish between what is real and what you’re seeing in the Rift.

The device accomplishes this with a number of different techniques.

The mask contains a large screen (the latest dev kit uses the same display as Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3 phone) to help provide enough area to take up to 100 degrees of your vision at a time. Then, each eye looks through different lens at a different part of the screen, which creates a stereoscopic 3D effect.

The oculus VR developer’s kit comes in a bundle with the camera tracker that tracks movements from the headset which is required to be connected to the same PC as the headset.

Creating an image with depth is only one part of creating the virtual experience. In order to foster presence, the Rift needs to track the way your head and body move. To do that, the headset features a number of sensors that detect tilt and orientation. The latest version of the Rift comes with an external camera that can see a number of infrared lights on the head-mounted display. When these indicators move, the camera can see it and translate it to the game.

All of these technologies combine to create a headset where you can look up and down, left and right, and lean to side-to-side inside a virtual world.

The technology uses ‘head tracking’ to enable the user to look around the virtual world they have entered, just as they can in real life.

Essex-based developers Plextek Consulting and Bespoke VR created the virtual simulation using the Facebook-owned technology, so trainee medics can assist injured soldiers in life-like battle scenarios.

The simulation emulates pre-hospital care on the battlefield and allows trainees to negotiate and prioritise clinical needs. 

This is designed to teach teamwork and decision-making skills within high-stress ‘under-fire’ scenarios, a spokesman explained.

The prototype, which was funded by the UK's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), has been ‘well received’ and virtual reality training could become common practice in few years.

The simulation emulates pre-hospital care on the battlefield (pictured) and allows trainees to negotiate and priorities clinical needs, teaching teamwork and decision-making skills within high-stress 'under-fire' scenarios, a spokesman explained

Pictures from Dailymail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2656155/The-virtual-realities-war-Life-like-battlefield-simulation-teaches-medics-treat-wounded-soldiers-fire.html

Article includes:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2656155/The-virtual-realities-war-Life-like-battlefield-simulation-teaches-medics-treat-wounded-soldiers-fire.html
http://www.wareable.com/oculus-rift/how-oculus-rift-works
http://venturebeat.com/2014/08/06/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-oculus-rift/

Criterion A—The issue and stakeholder(s)                                                  [4 marks]

Describe one social/ethical concern related to the IT system.

·         There will always be people that will try to replicate the programmer which may be released for people who buys the VR headset will try to use this may result in people using the program the wrong way and create mental and physical problems as well

Describe the relationship of one primary stakeholder to the IT system.

·         The developers as the creators

·         Army trainees as they are the user of the program

·         Buyers of the VR as there will be users that may try these programs themselves

·         Military who buys these headsets and sets them up for the trainees

Criterion B—The IT concepts and processes                                               [6 marks]

Describe, step by step, how the IT system works.

·         The VR headset is needed to be connected to a PC

·         The camera tracker also needs to be connected to the same PC

·         The camera that came bundled with the Oculus VR system needs to be set-up in front of the area of where the oculus rift is going to be used

·         Real time change continues on as image changes frequently proportional to how much you move around the 360degrees view.

·         Data from the input which is the camera that is tracking movement goes to the PC where information is processed and new images will be sent to the Rifts screen

·         The programs need to be installed on the PC

·         Put the headset on the trainer and start the program where the trainer must be in the area where the camera can track the headset.

Explain the relationship between the IT system and the social/ethical concern described in Criterion A.

·         The system itself is what create mental problems as it makes the situation seem realistic which may cause the user to think that the situation is too much for them to bare

·         Eye-sight problems are directly created from the headset itself

Criterion C—The impact of the social/ethical issue(s) on stakeholders        [8 marks]

·         The uproar of mental problems will affect the army and the creators of Oculus where the users and the civilians will be the ones complaining and trying to stop all the operations

·         There may be concerns for people being too

Criterion D—A solution to a problem arising from the article                        [8 marks]

·         Create a different environment on the outside where it is different from what you are seeing such as being in a cold room when you are in a desert for the picture that you are seeing where limitations must be set and people has to be tested for any mental problems if they are to use the headset.