Washington, DC (May 14, 2012) – The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), through the Information Innovation Office (I2O) has awarded Barone Consulting a $576K task order contract for the Urban Leader Tactical Response, Awareness & Visualization (ULTRA-VIS) Phase 3 Program, systems engineering and technical assistance (SETA) support effort.
“With Phase 2 of ULTRA-Vis we showed that computer vision can dramatically improve the quality of head tracking. We likewise showed a drastic reduction in size, weight and power over our Phase 1 prototype display. We’re excited to see these two technologies mature further into a fully deployable system for our elite warfighters.” said Kevin Barone, president and CEO of Barone Consulting.
The Urban Leader Tactical Response, Awareness and Visualization (ULTRA-Vis) program has developed a prototype tactical augmented reality system for use by Soldiers in the field. The ULTRA-Vis system overlays full-color graphical iconography onto the local scene observed by the Soldier. To enable this capability, the program developed and integrated a light-weight, low-power holographic see-through display with a vision-enabled position and orientation tracking system.
Using the ULTRA-Vis system, a Soldier can visualize the location of other forces, vehicles, hazards and aircraft in the local environment even when these are not visible to the Soldier. In addition, the system can be used to communicate to the Soldier a variety of tactically significant (local) information including imagery, navigation routes, and alerts.
The task order calls for Barone Consulting to provide subject matter experts responsible for overseeing the technical development of prototype holographic displays, and state of the art computer vision algorithms to enhance GPS and inertial sensor positional information. Barone Consulting will also be responsible for oversight of the full color see-through display research and computer vision algorithms as well as the system integration of 5-off prototype systems for the USAF. Applied Research Associates in Raleigh NC and BAE Systems from Rochester UK have been selected as the ULTRA-Vis Phase 2 performers.
The work for the ULTRA-Vis program, which was awarded under a task order to Booz Allen Hamilton’s DARPA/I2O contract vehicle, will be completed onsite at DARPA’s headquarters in Arlington, VA over the next 18-24 months.
Founded in 2009, Barone Consulting provides system engineering and technical assistance services to the Department of Defense and intelligence community. We provide a cadre of elite subject matter experts to the government in support of game-changing, cutting edge technologies and help performers bridge the “valley of death” between R&D and fielded tactically relevant products. To find out more, please visit www.baronedc.com.