Knowledge Where You Need It: Surfacing Mixed Reality’s Hidden Value In Providing That Which Can’t Be Trained For
If there is a backstory to Kognitiv Spark and our vision for the use of mixed reality in defence, it was written at the back of my Company laager in the Kuwaiti desert in 2003. Unannounced, the 7th Armoured Brigade Close Support Regiment dropped off racks of mission essential equipment that we had been promised would enhance our operational capability. As one would imagine, my team began to immediately unpack the kit. After eight weeks in the desert, it seemed Christmas had come early.
Our delight was to be short lived, however, when it soon transpired that none of my troops had ever been introduced to the equipment, let alone trained on it. Even more significantly, our REME fitter section had never learned how to fix it when the Fusiliers broke it. The instruction manuals, where they existed, were in French. As a team, we knew we had an issue to overcome – and fast: how do we train, operate, and maintain this potentially battle-winning kit we’ve been provided with, in the genuinely short period of time available before we were required to cross the line of departure?
As their commander, my combat team looked to me for answers. None came readily apart from three inadequate options: 1) do nothing and wait to be told how, 2) “guess right” (and assume – incorrectly – that this will work every time), 3) “guess wrong” (and risk injury and damage to the equipment).
A better, fourth option – to do the right thing based on the right knowledge where we needed it – didn’t exist.
We were fortunate. With some trial and error, we were able to “guess right”. Others weren’t so lucky. In other battlegroups, soldiers were severely wounded carrying out incorrect drills with unfamiliar weapons, and critical equipment was damaged beyond repair through simply “guessing wrong”.
Twenty years on and I still remember the palpable sense of frustration we felt – but I’m still thankful for that day. It surfaced a need that would later become a key driver as Ryan Groom and myself co-founded Kognitiv Spark back in 2016. It’s a need that still forms the bedrock of our mission: simply to get knowledge where – and when – it’s needed, supporting the human in the loop. As new technologies came online, practical and affordable possibilities opened up, aligned with the demands of defence. As such, our goal of fielding mixed reality (MR) as a highly applicable and capable enabler for servicemen, servicewomen, and original equipment manufacturer support teams became achievable.
Mixed Reality’s Evolving Role In Defence And National Security
MR isn't new to the scene by any means. The maritime, aerospace, and industrial manufacturing sectors have, for some time, been reaping the rewards of the extensibility and accessibility of interactive 3D digital content, overlaid on a physical space and delivered at the point of need. Similarly in defence, operational planning, equipment support, and training all stand to gain from MR. RemoteSpark, our MR performance support tool, has been used in operations on the edge, at sea in the Mediterranean, North Atlantic, and Pacific, as well as across five continents: from Chile to the Arctic Circle, in the Middle East, Europe, and Africa. It’s also being consistently – and uniquely – used in the most demanding security environments as a fully on-premise capability.
VR/AR/MR: What’s The Difference?
Virtual Reality (VR): A digital experience where users are fully immersed in a virtual environment.
Augmented Reality (AR): An interactive experience in which digital information is overlaid on the physical world.
Mixed Reality (MR): A blend of VR and AR that merges virtual and real worlds, allowing users to interact with both digital and physical elements simultaneously.
The value of this technology – like that of all technologies – isn’t intrinsic. Rather, it lies in what it can allow its users to do, and do so faster, better, and more efficiently than before. In that respect, MR’s value is explicit, wholly tangible, and often quantifiable across a whole range of defence business, providing three distinct yet complementary benefits at the point of need: streamlined collaboration; relevant, reliable, and easily accessible information; faster, more cost-effective training.
What I hadn't expected – though, knowing soldiers, I should have known – was that the full potential of MR would only be revealed when the troops started to get their hands on it, identifying value that can’t be contained to stats and spreadsheets. Value that’s less measurable, but equally real.
Collaboration Where You Need It
The junior REME Craftsman who, under pressure from her unit and faced with a daunting bit of kit to repair, can dial in a specialist on the other side of the world to see what she sees; swap diagrams, diagnostics, and instructions in real-time; and share the cognitive load of troubleshooting a problem together, will get that piece of kit up and running in a fraction of the time.
There’d be fewer fractured conversations. Less back-and-forth over unclear photos or screenshots. No crossed wires or cross individuals. Just seamless collaboration – and peace of mind for that same junior engineer who might simply want a second pair of eyes. Using something like RemoteSpark, she will diagnose issues faster and, once identified, minimise downtime. Conversely, a single SME can get their knowledge, skills, and experience to multiple technicians and engineers from a central spot, saving travel costs and time but also – in the case of medical support or an urgent operational situation – saving lives.
Information Where You Need It
With MR, it’s possible to have task-relevant digital instructions, schematics, and guidelines on hand, in the right format and in the right language, viewable as interactive 3D content rather than as a 300+ page booklet. When timely and effective decision making rests on having access to the latest, most relevant and most reliable information, providing such rich, accessible and easily-navigable content at the point of need promises to increase the tempo of individuals, whole units, and entire operations.
Training (And Retraining) Where You Need It
RemoteSpark performs at bandwidth speeds as low as 128kbps, about the same as a 2G connection.
Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve states that within an hour of learning something new, people tend to forget up to 50% of it, increasing to 70% within 24 hours. By the end of the week, people are lucky if they remember only 25% of what they’ve learned if no attempt is made to retain it. Studies since then – some as recent as 2015 – have time and again reproduced and verified Ebbinghaus’ findings.
What then, does that mean for the regenerative training and knowledge retention of the cold, wet soldier in a forward operating base who’s a long time out of training and who might be working on a completely unfamiliar vehicle or system; who hasn’t slept for 36 hours, and yet is under pressure from his boss to “get that pack lift finished”? His ability to remember and absorb information is impaired; his decision making not what it would be back in home station. It bears repeating: technology’s value rests on how it empowers its user. With MR, we can turn the story around for this soldier by delivering a powerful support capability at the point of need, improving outcomes, and decision making to support the mission.
This might be in the classroom, or at the edge; in the back office, or in low-bandwidth environments. By distributing training, we shed the transport costs and air miles of getting trainees and instructors all in one place. And that’s not to mention the training experience itself: 3D interactive content versus static PowerPoint slides. One-to-one support. Real-time feedback. It’s as engaging as it is enlightening, and a hugely cost-effective way of keeping trainees sharp and operational readiness high.
Mixed Reality’s Evolving Value: The Role Of Tacit Knowledge In Keeping People Alive
‘Knowledge where you need it’ certainly has a nice ring to it. It does well to imply all those cold hard measurable benefits I’ve just mentioned: costs, resource and time savings; lower travel emissions; reduction in engineering downtime; increased task productivity. But as the tech gets tried, tested, and trusted in a variety of different military scenarios by scores of different users, I’ve noticed a shift in its value. The term knowledge has taken on another dimension – one that goes beyond published requirements and qualitative data; beyond stats and figures; beyond the transmission of technical docs and benefits measured in terms of days or dollars saved.
It’s a second-order effect I never really saw coming. The REME Craftsman who uses MR tech to access equipment manuals can now use the same tech – wherever, and whenever – to benefit from that which can’t be trained for: the experience, instinct, and intuition of others. He can access the tacit knowledge of an engineer who’s spent decades working on high-value, battle-winning systems of systems; the workarounds, the quick fixes, the insight mired in years of solving the same problems.
I’ve seen the value of this tacit knowledge when a Craftsman, using a workaround provided over RemoteSpark by an expert (apparently one of only three in the British Army), single-handedly fixed an unserviceable vehicle platform – the only one of its kind in theatre, and essential to the operational capability of the entire task force.
Using MR, soldiers can dial in similarly lofty levels of capability, intuition, and confidence. As if by osmosis, they can absorb some for themselves to gain enduring readiness and competence on the battlefield – from increasing the golden hour in front line medical tents to equipment support and maintenance on the battle lines of Ukraine. That’s where the real value of knowledge lies, now accessible to a new generation of soldiers, sailors, and aviators. And it can’t be reduced to cost/time/resource savings when it can – and should – instead be measured in lives saved.
Empowering The Individual Through The Best Tools For The Job
“War is 90% information.” This was true when Napoleon said it. It was true 20 years ago in Kuwait. It’s true today where we have become even more dependent on highly complex systems of systems. We need to get the right information – in the right format – to the right people at the right time, so that they can do what they need to faster and more effectively, and so navigate the fine lines on which every operation hangs. There will always be boots on the ground. Modern warfare might be technologically enabled, but it’s still fundamentally a human endeavour.
That’s why technology like MR and capabilities like RemoteSpark will continue to play a crucial but supporting role in augmenting and elevating personnel at every level, in any location, for any operation.
The question facing start-ups and SMEs like Kognitiv Spark is how they can work with defence – and with one another – to play the same role for allied armed forces who need to retain a competitive edge.
