Start-up Red 6 has won a contract to install its augmented reality headphones on several US Air Force (USAF) Northrop T-38 Talon jet trainers.
The company aims to complete integration into the first aircraft in approximately 12 to 18 months, with other subsequent aircraft, says Daniel Robinson, CEO of Red 6 on September 21st.
The start-up’s augmented reality headphones are designed to train pilots to fight dogs virtually while flying on real trainer or fighter jets. Opponent aircraft are synthetic projections of augmented reality headphones. The system is capable of training several pilots at once in the same simulation.
“Think of it a bit like a kind of multiplayer game, played in the sky, where we connect several real entities to the same game space, so that everyone can visualize and see exactly what others see,” Robinson says.
The system also allows combat pilot participants to practice tactics for out-of-sight encounters with enemy aircraft. In the case of the T-38, which has no radar, the system simulates radar contacts on a cabin tablet. Red 6 plans to later integrate its headphones into a Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter, where it will be able to simulate contacts on the jet’s radar screen and connect to other mission systems, Robinson says.
The USAF is interested in the Red 6 system to save money that it would otherwise have to spend on air support from the adversary; the use of private jets or services to do dog fighting drills. The system could also be used to teach flight training, including complicated maneuvers, such as refueling in flight.
Fighting dogs against a real plane is a quick and chaotic experience. This is a challenge for augmented reality programs, as fast head movements can outweigh the ability of headphones to generate and project virtual images. Still, Red 6 says it has mostly solved this problem.
“For latency to be absolutely imperceptible to humans, it is around the mark of less than 20 milliseconds. We are already approaching about 40 milliseconds of latency, which is almost imperceptible, ”says Robinson. “We are very close. Latency is one of the main technical achievements of which we are incredibly proud ”.