TACP operators need an increase of Situational Awareness that provides a greater view of the battle space and aid in real time decision making with clear communication.

In order to most effectively deliver the fullness of needed situational awareness data, related affects hardware must be able to not only allow for seamless interaction with existing soldier systems (radios, etc…) but also ensure an optimal user interface with which to most effectively enhance real-time decision making and clear communication. Advances in Helmet Mounted Display technology and Integrated Acoustic implementations provide greatly beneficial augmented reality and 3-Dimensional audio treatments to enhance operational effectiveness. Related improvements in wearable computing solutions that provide free-space head tracking allow for deployment of powerful processing ability while at the same time minimizing the needed footprint addition to the soldier ensemble.

The Air National Guard recently evaluated TACP wearable computing systems with integrated cabling and chest displays to improve manprint SWAP effects. As a follow on enhancement, TACP units need to upgrade the antiquated look-down chest display with enhanced Heads-up visual augmentation solutions (lightweight, see-through, full-color HMDs) to enable the TACP to quickly and easily identify Blue Force position data in exact relation to the battlespace environment while also presenting integrated 3D audio inputs to the operator of those same radio channels being received in real-time. The key to providing these enhanced capabilities is a robust integrated WSA system with the ability to deploy an accurate free-space head tracking solution with mature pose estimation algorithm advances into both the HMD and acoustic systems to provide a truly integrated user experience.