Fall/Winter 2007

Student-faculty team developing technology for Air Force

For the average person, the idea of jumping out of a perfectly good airplane is daunting enough.

Imagine, then, plummeting from an altitude so high you need an oxygen supply just to breathe. While being buffeted by high winds and blinded by poor visibility, you must rely only on your training and instincts to open your parachute at the last possible moment and glide undetected to a small landing zone behind enemy lines.

Such is the challenge faced regularly by the HALO (High Altitude - Low Opening) jumpers of the U.S. Special Forces - a dicey practice being made a lot more scientific with the help of a professor and graduate student from Miami University's School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Professor Mike McCollum and first-year graduate student Brad Geltz, through a fellowship grant from the Dayton Area Graduate Studies Institute (DAGSI), are working to design an augmented reality video system that can be affixed to a jumper's helmet and provide critical information on that jumper's location and landing zone.

"Augmented reality is the practice of overlaying digital text and graphics over a live image, just like the yellow first-down line you now see during televised football games," McCollum said. "The software we're working on can be customized to display pretty much whatever a jumper needs to see. It can display an "X" to mark the spot of their landing zone, identify nearby landmarks, or even warn of an enemy base by placing a red box around it."

McCollum discovered the opportunity on a list of potential projects provided through the DAGSI Student-Faculty Research Program and recruited Geltz to work with him on drafting the proposal and developing the technology. While the original list included 10-15 potential projects, the GPS Based Helmet Video Guidance System proposed by McCollum and Geltz was one of only a handful to receive funding.

"We took our proposal a little further than what they were asking for," McCollum said. "Instead of just proposing a system that's going to help a jumper land in the right place, we proposed a system that can log data during the jump and also be used as a teaching tool."

The duo, currently working with a laptop, digital compass, and video camera, has been hard at work since late June. They are on target to have a prototype small enough to seamlessly fit on a helmet by the time the initial funding runs out in May. McCollum and Geltz are hoping to obtain more funding after that time so they can see their project through.

"We're aiming to have the software developed by then, but there's a difference between prototype and development software," McCollum said. "Once we show the demo for the first time, a hundred new ideas will hit, and there will be a lot of follow up work. This is a project with a future, and we want to see it used."

Exciting work such as this is becoming commonplace at Miami's School of Engineering and Applied Science, which is nearing completion of its $26 million, three-building complex on High Street and is anticipating an enrollment increase of between 25 and 40 percent in the coming years. According to McCollum, who chose to work at Miami because of the excitement surrounding the relatively young program, the school's emphasis on hands-on learning is a big part of its success.

"Teaching theory in the classroom is great, but projects that have direct applications provide opportunities for our students to actually apply their knowledge," said McCollum. "Our students and faculty are involved in a lot of projects, including a number with the Air Force, where they're getting their hands dirty. Employers are looking for that type of experience, and we're receiving a lot of positive feedback about our graduates."

According to Geltz, a native of Poland, Ohio, who is working toward a master's degree in computer science, the time spent working on the guidance system does not seem like work at all.

"It's different when you're working on something you're genuinely interested in," Geltz said. "It's fun, and I'm excited to come in here and work each day. When you enjoy what you're doing, it makes the experience that much more beneficial."

For more information on supporting this and other innovative projects within the School of Engineering and Applied Science, contact Christopher Adkins Lamb of the Miami University Development Office at adkinsc@muohio.edu or 513-529-9260.