BANC3, as a subconsultant to ThirdEye Inc, is finalizing the development of a Secure Extended Reality (SXR) headset to enable the utilization of extended/augmented reality within a highly secure facility or area, such as a SCIF (Secure Compartmented Information Facility). Understanding this critical need, our team was awarded this Direct-to-Phase 2 SBIR award to create a novel solution to a unique security challenge while sharing critical data, voice, and video feed through extended reality glasses, due to our extensive experience in augmented and extended reality hardware and software.
Command and Control, specifically information dominance, is crucial for the Department of War to collect, process, and use information effectively, which can be decisive in a conflict. The shift to Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) integrates operations across all domains of warfare, amplifying the importance of information dominance for situational awareness (SA), decision making, and operational effectiveness. Classified information is critical for full-spectrum SA in MDO, and decision makers must therefore operate inside SCIFs or similar secure facilities equipped to securely handle and store such information. There were Defense-related mission needs to establish an XR platform solution for integration into SCIFs. This solution will meet the strict requirements for clearance into a SCIF, while maintaining the visualization and human-computer interaction (HCI) capabilities that yield XR's potential benefits. This significantly advances the visualization of complex information and battlespace common operating pictures (COPs) within SCIFs, allowing Commanders and their staff to achieve the already empirically proven benefits to SA, shared SA, and decision-making outcomes that effective XR can yield.
Our solution was the development of a bespoke XR headset, tracking, and HCI solution that was intentionally designed for use in secure facilities for the presentation of classified data. The mission impacts of our performant technology for our stakeholder end users are: (1) Enhanced situational awareness (SA) through immersive presentation of key information in support of C2 and other information heavy operations that inform decision making. (2) Accelerated timeline to provide access to a trustworthy immersive XR solution for secure facilities; and (3) An initial approach and methods to establish and manage supply chain trustworthiness for commercial hardware.
