A key part of TARGET was the development and testing of novel and often immature technologies with a TRL level of 4-7 for use within SCA training. The project was not aiming for a commercial level product with high levels of graphical realism but instead to explore the potential future use of such technologies for SCA training. This led to some mismatch between end user expectations and the final outputs of the project. One key limitation being the field of view. This resulted in the project identifying that current AR technologies are not suitable for some of the training scenarios in TARGET, however as they mature many of the limitations encountered may be overcome. The project has identified one very strong use case which has attracted significant interest and further development funding.
From a platform perspective TARGET has moved beyond the state-of-the-art used in training scenarios as it connects both legacy tools and new innovative technologies together so that organisations can train using the components which best reflect their needs. As it stands TARGET connects MR technologies, a base platform, tracked real world objects, advanced drone imaging technologies and geospatial systems. When combined with the scenario editing tools and the advanced assessment engine, they provide a strong basis for future research and work in SCA training. Furthermore, the combination of these components allows scenarios which can be used by different command levels.
TARGET is flexible and allows organisations to assemble new scenarios based on a library of components. While the editing tools require some improvement, they allow for (compared to current solutions) ways to create and modify scenarios on site, therefore making it lower cost and easier to run scenarios. A key finding in the project is that first responder organisations are often reluctant to adopt serious games of gamification approaches within sensitive training scenarios. These were for a variety of reasons including the negative perception by the trainees and members of the public to “game-like” training approaches. Also reducing training scenarios to points, levels and badges was viewed by some to trivialize scenario or be mismatched to overall learning objectives. TARGET never intended to replace existing training techniques, but instead aimed to complement them and has the potential to provide a new phase in the training cycle and at relatively low-cost.
While the currently available AR hardware may not be suitable for all use scenarios at this time, other aspects of the project have illustrated high levels of immediate promise. For example, the advanced 3D photogrammetry drone systems developed in TARGET have won a major award, are now going through a commercialisation phase. While work on the 2D geospatial tools for use within the command post environments continues to attract interest. The TARGET systems were demonstrated at varying TRL (4-7) levels within end-user organisations and a thorough assessment of the strengths and weaknesses was undertaken. A start-up has also been set-up to exploit other results from TARGET. Finally, two scenarios will be possibly be used for training.
