Video Shows Navy Having Way Too Much Fun with Its New Virtual Reality Lab

The Office of Naval Research has established a lab to experiment with virtual and augmented reality toys. The Battlespace Exploitation of Mixed Reality lab, or BEMR, is trying to find ways to train sailors with low-cost virtual interfaces before they have the opportunity to mess up something really expensive. If the ludicrous nature of their announcement video is any sign, at the very least they're having some fun with it.

In its inaugural video, BEMR shows different applications of augmented reality training. Marines can take a virtual tour of an island before they invade it, familiarizing themselves with landmarks before the bullets fly. Technicians can train to perform repairs and maintenance before they reach their assignments. With the right instructions, an AR headset could guide an untrained sailor through an emergency procedure when no one else is available.

There's a ton of applications briefly teased by the video. I see simulations showing hostile intership communication, celestial navigation, electronics repair, and air traffic controller scenarios. The announcement video also shows off a mildly cross-eyed virtual drill instructor dancing to PSY's Gangnam style and a truly unfortunate taste in techno music. It makes sense. What good is it being on the bleeding edge of technology if you can't be a little weird about it?

The rest of the civilian world is going to find out if virtual reality can live up to decades of sci-fi hype when consumer kits like the Oculus Rift reach customers next year. Perhaps the more practical tech for most business tasks will be augmented reality headsets that overlay instructions and interfaces on the physical realm. Or maybe the pinnacle of this technology will be making a virtual officer dance Gangnam style for our amusement.