Performance of Egocentric Range Estimation in a Laptop Based Virtual Environment

Abstract

There are limited opportunities and options for deployable units to practice the wide range of skills and tasks needed to stay mission ready. If not practiced, the degradation of skill can have unexpected and disastrous consequences for military personnel and their operations. One such degradable skill is range estimation, which is the ability to accurately determine the distance between one's egocentric position and an observed position (or the distance between two observed positions). Proficiency in this essential skill is fundamental to success in a wide range of operations including land navigation, marksmanship, and the call for indirect fires; therefore, efforts towards reducing skill degradation between formal training cycles are essential. Additionally, when considering the limited amount of space available to deployed units for equipment, an optimal training system should serve multiple purposes. The Multi-platform Operational Team Training Immersive Virtual Environment (MOT2IVE) is a deployable, laptop based simulation prototype that targets the consolidation of declarative knowledge and the acquisition of procedural knowledge. This study was conducted to explore the potential of using the MOT2IVE system as a supplemental practice tool to combat the degradation of range estimation skills by increasing immersion though the use of projection. Participants estimated target ranges in a live estimation course, a MOT2IVE virtual environment (VE) course and a projected version of the VE course. Results showed significant performance differences between estimations made in the laptop and projection environments and the live environment. While the range estimation results were consistent with the findings of previous research, these findings suggest that attempting to increase immersion through the use of projection on a single screen does not significantly affect performance.

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