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The University of South Australia (UniSA) and Saab are partnering up to show visitors a rare insight into how field hospitals work in disaster zones, all in augmented reality (AR).
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The exhibit, Augmented Relief, will be featured among UniSA's Museum of Discovery's (MOD.) Waging Peace showing, opening on 27 November.
Augmented Relief aims to challenge traditional ideas of peace-building, and will allow visitors wearing HoloLens devices to walk through a virtual field hospital and experience it as medical staff would.
Managing director of Saab Australia Andy Keough said the exhibit will give visitors better insight into the capabilities of AR technologies.
“Using this technology, we can see what works and in what circumstances, so it means we are able to design more efficient medical facilities for the field,” Keough said.
“We can then test those designs and refine our work so that deployable hospitals and the medical technologies they contain are fit for all circumstances.”
The collaboration builds on the joint agreement signed in 2017 by Saab and UniSA. The collaboration is "designed to develop a key education and research pipeline for highly skilled systems engineers in SA".
Director of MOD. Dr Kristin Alford said the collaboration will give people first-hand experience of how AR technologies are being used to streamline the design process.
“The innovations pioneered by the defence sector are much broader than people imagine and often underpin civilian applications that enhance our capacity to deliver health care, emergency assistance and other much needed human services,” Dr Alford said.
Waging Peace is MOD.'s second exhibition, and asks "whether it is possible to proactively and aggressively pursue peace", and aims to change visitor's perception through serious games, explores what happens when people deal with high conflict situations on insufficient sleep, and how networks can manipulate reality.
"We are delighted to be a part of the Waging Peace exhibition because it poses important questions about the social, environmental and human factors that influence peace, and understanding how technologies can actively support peaceful societies is a vital element of that story," explained Mr Keough.
