Pointman is a seated user interface for dismounted infantry simulation.
Although it was designed to provide squad-level training in a traditional classroom setting,
we believe that Pointman gives users more effective control over their avatar than more
expensive dismounted infantry simulators.
The Immersive Simulation section at the Naval Research Laboratory developed the Pointman
user interface.
This video explains how it works.
Pointman is a seated user interface, which uses a head tracker, gamepad, and sliding
foot pedals to very precisely control the movement of one's avatar through a virtual
environment.
We've integrated Pointman with Virtual Battlespace 3, and I'll be using that simulator for my
demo.
I like to start out in my demo in third person mode so you can see more clearly the effect
of the control on my avatar, which you see on the screen in front of me.
The head tracker consists of a camera mounted to the monitor and LEDs that are attached
to my head.
They track the position and rotation of my head and upper body, so that I can, so you
can see as I move my head up and down, side to side, my avatar's motion of his head and
body mimic mine, one for one.
So I can lean into a deep hunch, look around; and we use this for looking and aiming and
making effective use of cover.
The foot pedals are used to control stepping -- the sliding motion.
As I push forward with my right foot, notice that my avatar correspondingly steps with
his right foot, so that I can very accurately control the size and cadence of my stepping.
We direct the motion with the thumbsticks on the gamepad.
When I push the left stick to the left and step, now I'm going to side step to the left,
in the direction that I'm pushing with the thumbstick; back, and to the right.
The right stick controls turning, the direction the avatar faces, which allows me to walk
in a curved path.
The foot pedals also go up and down, like the accelerator pedal of your car, and we've
mapped that into a continuous control over the postural height, so as I push down on
the pedals, notice my avatar goes into a deep crouch.
If I take a step and go down, my avatar can take a knee.
And of course, while I am crouching or at any point in between I can step using the
foot pedals.
A button on the gamepad is used to go into a prone position.
Once I'm prone, here my feet are up, high prone, hands and knees, as I press down on
the foot pedal -- notice my avatar goes into a low prone, belly to the ground, and of course
while prone I can crawl using the controls.
And while I'm prone, notice that I can still control the direction I'm looking and the
lean of my torso using my upper body.
The gamepad also has tilt sensors and we've mapped this into a fluid control over the
weapon hold.
As I'm holding the gamepad in a tilted down position my avatar is holding the rifle in
a lowered position, as I tilt up the gamepad, notice the weapon comes up into a low ready,
aim, all the way to a high ready position.
The side-to-side tilt of the gamepad is mapped into a continuous control over the weapon
roll.
Being able to control the weapon in this manner is very important for tactical operations,
especially being able to quickly bring the weapon into a lowered position to move through
tight spaces, avoid muzzle sweeping your comrades, leading with the rifle around corners.
Let me go into first person to show you how I can take advantage of the cover offered
by this wall.
To third person, notice how I'm aiming.
While I'm aiming, let me make note.
Notice that with the sight picture I'm able to finely control my aim using my head, ok,
to target.
Now I'm going to do a quick little mission here.
There are some bad guys, so I have to move tactically along this wall, pie the corner.
They do shoot back.
As I move into the courtyard, notice how carefully I can adjust my pace through the environment.
As I come up behind this truck, go third person, notice that I'm leaning forward and crouching
down, my feet are pressing down on the foot pedals to take advantage of the cover.
As I slowly come up I see an enemy in the distance.
Again, using my head for fine control over aiming.
So one more bad guy that I have to take care of over here.
Ok.
Just a few more comments about aiming, we move into the intersection.
The cursor that you see in the center of the screen is a view cursor; it is not an aim
cursor.
It depicts the center of the screen, and where the sight picture will be when I bring up
the aim.
Ok, if I shoot with the weapon lowered, notice where the bullet hits.
Of course in close quarters you can use that to effect.
We use all the various fire modes offered by VBS3 so I can cycle to a three shot burst,
bring up the M203 grenade launcher.
Notice that I'm still aiming: fine control over aiming with my head.
Then to finish I'll just simply lob a grenade.
The aim trajectory is actually provided by VBS3 as an optional assist.
-- And that's the end of my demo.
Thank you.
The Immersive Simulation section at the Naval Research Laboratory has developed several
user interfaces for dismounted infantry simulation, over the past decade.
First we developed a full-body tracked interface where the user wore a head-mounted display
and wielded a realistic rifle prop.
It was called 'Gaiter' because the user steps in place to move through the virtual world.
Later we took what we learnt developing Gaiter and applied it to create 'Pointman'.
We believe that Pointman gives users even more effective control over the avatar for
infantry simulation.
Our goal has always has been to make dismounted infantry simulation more realistic.
In time we realized that this means to better represents what the user would do in the real
world.
And this boils down to giving the user more direct & extensive control over his avatar.
The key actions involved in infantry combat are Looking, Moving, Shooting, and Communicating.
Since dismounted infantrymen are not heavily armored, they must make use of cover and concealment.
Being able to quickly move to cover and use it effectively is critical for realistic infantry
simulation.
The Pointman user interface adds a precision head tracker and sliding foot pedals to a
gamepad controller.
This makes for a compact, low cost system.
Our software maps the user's actions to provides more natural and extensive control over the
avatar.
Pointman engages the user's Head, Hands, and Feet to control corresponding segments of
the avatar's body.
This offloads the hands from having to control the entire avatar.
The user can easily coordinate the movements of his Head, Hands, and Feet to move the avatar
with freedom & precision.
You don't need a head mounted display to do head coupled viewing.
We simply couple the avatar's head movements to the user's, and show what the avatar would
see on the screen.
When the user moves his head, the avatar's head moves with it.
Unlike interfaces that exaggerate turning the head to present a wide field-of-regard,
Pointman applies a one-to-one mapping.
This affords precise aiming, since the gunsight moves with the head.
All the new input channels added by Pointman provide Positional Control over the avatar's
posture!.
A Positional Control ties the position of an output directly to the position of an input
device.
Inputs from Gamepads, used in console games, are applied as either discrete or rate controls.
A rate control ties the speed of an output to the position of an input device.
A discrete control triggers a specific change in the output.
In terms of animating a character, with a discrete or rate control, you press a button
or push a stick & the system plays out a canned motion sequence.
That's how today's first person shooter games work.
Positional controls are a game changer.
With positional control over the avatar's posture: The user moves the avatar by continuously
varying its posture.
The user controls the avatar's posture with the same dexterity as he positions his head,
hands & feet, and the user constantly feels avatar's posture, without the need for visual
feedback; moreover, the set of controls collectively determine the avatar's posture.
This allows the user to naturally coordinate his movements, while the avatar simply reflects
that motion.
Thank you for viewing our video.
For further information please refer to the Pointman user interface Wikipedia page.