Assessment of the Psychological and Physiological Effects of Augmented Reality (APPEAR)

Purpose

This solicitation, issued by MTEC, represents a Request for Project Proposals (RPP) for MTEC support of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC) Joint Program Committee-1 (JPC1)/Medical Simulation and Information Sciences Research Program (MSISRP). Military relevance is a critical component of Solution Brief submission. Strategic and tactical oversight for the award(s) supported by this RPP will be provided by the JPC-1/MSISRP.

As an area program of the Defense Health Agency (DHA), Research, Development, and Acquisition (RDA) Directorate, the JPC-1/MSISRP Medical Simulation (MedSim) Steering Committee provides programmatic funding recommendations as directed by and for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs (OASDHA) Defense Health Program (DHP) Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E) appropriation related to medical training and education efforts to advance the development and integration of simulation-based training systems.

Background: Augmented reality (AR) is the use of a computer-based simulation engine to add non-real sensory information to the real sensory world. Essentially, AR directs participants’ attention to either existing information that they would have not been consciously aware of or to new information that changes their perceptual information. Although this co-registered information can be visually projected directly onto real objects, AR information is often presented directly to the recipient by a device attached to the recipient.

APPEAR maps to DHA’s Joint Evacuation and Transport Simulation (JETS) and Point of Injury and Trauma Simulation (POINTS) programs, under the JPC-1/MSISRP Medical Simulation portfolio. It addresses the capability gaps in the Virtual Patient System (VPS) of JETS and POINTS. The VPS provides intelligent, scalable, modular medical training products, tools, and devices across globally distributed, integrated, and interconnected Live, Virtual, Constructive, and Gaming training environments. Technology using Augmented Reality (AR) is a significant piece of the VPS, at point of injury (POINTS) and point of demand across the complete chain of evacuation (JETS). This research is critical for assessing the limitations of AR that could impact learning effectiveness to ensure optimal development and utilization of AR technology to address the identified capability gaps in military medical simulation training.

Overall End Goal of Program:

The ultimate goal of this program is to identify psychological and** physiological limitations of AR prototypes currently under development or used for medical simulation training. This research will assess and inform prototype development and/or refinement of existing AR prototypes for medical simulation, reducing overall developmental risk, 1) enabling efficiency in the design of future AR scenarios, 2) identifying potential safety issues, and 3) identifying risk factors for adverse reactions to AR medical simulations. Assessing the physiological and psychological effects of AR prototypes for military medical simulations is imperative to the technological development and refinement needed to fully address the existing capability gaps identified in the JETS and POINTS programs and deliver effective solutions to the Warfighter.

Objective of RPP:

This RPP is seeking Solution Briefs for human subjects studies that assess the psychological and/or physiological effects of medical training simulations using AR in the various military echelons of care.

Proposers Conference

Points of Contact

For inquiries, please direct your correspondence to Biomedical Research Associate Chuck Hutti, Ph.D. at Chuck.Hutti@ati.org.