Military first responders and also civilian experts in international peace missions must act quickly and unerringly in complex and dangerous situations under stress. Basic skills must be trained in advance as realistically as possible in order to be able to use them efficiently in later, real-life deployment situations and to reduce the risk potential when deployed to crisis areas. Simulations of concrete conflict scenarios are applied in the biannual “Native Challenge” workshop within a military camp area in the Austrian Alpes that is based on the idea of a cooperation between the “UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies” and the Military Command Tyrol. The representation of these simulations where participants experience in exercise scenarios the surprises, conflicts and dangers they can be confronted within a real mission is very costly which prohibits repeated, personalised and focused skill training.The Austrian project SmartSkills aims at providing standardised scenarios from the most diverse areas (behaviour at the checkpoint, negotiation, accident in the minefield, care of the wounded, etc.) interactively, tailored to the participants in terms of stress load, leadership ability and communication behaviour. A Mixed Reality training system allows unlimited repetitions, especially with personalised difficulty adaptations of the scenarios, and provides corresponding content for in-depth debriefings. SmartSkills will offer a highly innovative automated digital analysis of the human factors of the assignment, in particular the decisive situational awareness in critical situations, and uses biosensors to point out cognitive-emotional problem areas that require special attention in skill development. The associated Decision Support System will translate scientifically validated data into pragmatic risk estimates for the attention of the training management.This presentation will for the firstly describe the conceptual outline of the “Native Challenge” which integrates several levels and feedback loops of operational and strategical challenges. Secondly, the setting and the results of the initial requirement study detailed including information about the selected scenarios and use cases, with roles, objects of interest and training objectives. Furthermore, we will describe the technical specification for the Mixed reality system, its general system architecture, with the outline of wearable bio-signal sensors for psychophysiological monitoring, the graphical processing including realistic object visualisation and digital twins that were scanned from the real operational sites. We will provide details about the study plan, its research hypotheses, in particular, in the context of the evaluation of the training and psychophysiological key performance indicators. Finally, we will describe the anchoring in the international context and the acceleration of developments through exchange with European initiatives.SmartSkills is researching a new dimension of particularly realistic visualisations through the use of innovative digital twins: with highly accurate measurement technology and AI-supported evaluation software, internationally relevant environments can be experienced directly in the simulation centre, thereby increasing the realistic immersion.

First responders engage in highly stressful situations at the emergency site that may induce stress, fear, panic and a collapse of clear thinking. Staying cognitively under control under these circumstances is a necessary condition to avoid useless risk-taking and particularly to provide accurate situation reports to remote units to be able to organize appropriate support in time. This work applied a flexible virtual reality (VR) training environment with the purpose to investigate the performance of reporting under rather realistically simulated mission conditions. In a pilot study, representative emergency forces of the Austrian volunteer fire brigade and paramedics of the Johanniter organization were subjected to a test program that tested a formalized reporting schema (LEDVV), inducing equivalent strain in both, real environment and VR-based training scenarios. Wearable psychophysiological measuring technology was applied to estimate the cognitive-emotional stress level under both training conditions. The results indicate that both situation reports achieve a rather high level of cognitive-emotional stress and should be thoroughly trained. Furthermore, the results motivate the use of VR environments for the training of stress-resilient decision-making behavior of emergency forces.

First responders engage in highly stressful situations at the emergency site that may induce stress, fear, panic and a collapse of clear thinking. Staying cognitively under control under these circumstances is a necessary condition to avoid useless risk-taking and particularly to provide accurate situation reports to organize appropriate support in time. This work-in-progress applied a flexible virtual reality (VR) training environment to investigate the performance of reporting under rather realistically simulated mission conditions. In a pilot study, representative emergency forces of the Austrian volunteer fire brigade and paramedics of the Johanniter organization participated in an exploratory pilot study that tested a formalized reporting schema (LEDVV), applying equivalent stress in both, (i) real (physical strain) and non-immersive (cognitive strain), and (ii) fully immersive training environments. Wearable psychophysiological measuring technology was applied to estimate the cognitive-emotional stress level under both training conditions. The results indicate that situation reports achieve a high level of cognitive-emotional stress and should be thoroughly trained. Furthermore, the results motivate the use of VR environments for the training of stress-resilient decision-making behavior of emergency forces.

First responders are faced with various challenges and critical situations during their operations. Virtual Reality (VR) training environments offer a great opportunity to create realistic operational scenarios with appropriate levels of difficulty. To evaluate VR-based training regarding cognitive-emotional and physical strain, a pilot study with 13 first responders (firefighters and paramedics) was conducted. The study plan aimed to induce equivalent strain in both, real environment (‘RC’) and VR-based (‘VR’), training scenarios. In summary, the results indicate that training sessions in real and in VR-based environments have a comparable impact on physical strain, on different dimensions of workload like physical and cognitive demand, and specific physical and emotional states. Most important, we could show that physical strain, which is a critical factor for appropriate training of first responders, cannot only be induced by traditional real-life training, but also by an immersive VR training environment. These results confirm and motivate the use of VR environments for the training of stress-resilient decision-making behaviour for emergency forces.

We present the VROnSite platform that supports immersive training of first responder units’ on-site squad leaders. Our training platform is fully immersive, entirely untethered to ease use and provides two means of navigation—abstract and natural walking—to simulate stress and exhaustion, two important factors for decision making. With the platform’s capabilities, we close a gap in prior art for first responder training. Our research is closely interlocked with stakeholders from multiple fire brigades to gather early feedback in an iterative design process. In this paper, we present the system’s design rationale, provide insight into the process of training scenario development and present results of a user study with 41 squad leaders from the firefighting domain. Virtual disaster environments with two different navigation types were evaluated using quantitative and qualitative measures. Participants considered our platform highly suitable for training of decision making in complex first responder scenarios and results show the importance of the provided navigation technologies in this context.

Virtual Reality (VR) systems can improve the training of first responders and soldiers in multi-domain operations in a number of ways. Realistic simulation of physical objects, however, is challenging. The huge variety of equipment pieces and other objects specialists in first responder units - and in particular CBRN-troops - interact with further increases the effort. In this paper, we present a novel and flexible Mixed Reality (MR) training system for first responders that enables the integration of physical objects by using Augmented Virtuality (AV) and binary tracking". A Head Mounted Display (HMD) immerses the user in VR, while augmenting the visualization with 3D imagery of real objects, captured by an RGB-D sensor. In addition, a RFID-reader at the user's hand detects the presence or absence (binary response) of certain equipment items. Our proposed MR system fuses this information with data of an inertial motion capture suit to an approximate global object pose and distributes it. Our solution provides a wide range of options for physical object interaction and collaboration in a multi-user MR environment. In addition, we demonstrate the training capabilities of our proposed system with a multi-user training scenario, simulating a CBRN crisis. Results from our technical and quantitative user evaluation with 13 experts in CBRN response from the Austrian Armed Forces (National Defense Academy and Competence Center NBC Defense) indicate strong applicability and user acceptance. Over 80% of the participants found it easy or very easy to interact with physical objects and liked the multi-user training much or very much.

Over the past decade, training in virtual reality for military and disaster preparedness has been increasingly recognized as an important adjunct to traditional modalities of real-life drills. However, there are only a few existing solutions that provide immersive virtual reality training and improve learning through an increased amount of presence. In this paper, we present a novel and flexible Virtual Reality (VR) training system for military and first responders that enables realistic multi-user training in large environments. We show how the requirements of peer stakeholders for disaster relief with an explicit focus on CBRN disaster preparedness transfer to the concept, current implementation and future features of our system. The development and integration of multiple technologies allows a wide variety of interaction and collaboration within our immersive system. In addition, we demonstrate the training capabilities of our proposed system with a multi-user training scenario, simulating a CBRN crisis. Results from our technical and user evaluation with 13 experts in CBRN response from the Austrian Armed Forces (National Defence Academy & Competence Center NBC Defence) indicate strong applicability and user acceptance. Over 80% of the participants agreed “much” or “very much” that the presented system can be used to support training for CBRN-crisis preparedness.

Over the past decade, training in virtual reality for military and disaster preparedness has been increasingly recognized as an important adjunct to traditional modalities of real-life drills. However, there are only a few existing solutions that provide immersive virtual reality training that implies improved learning through an increased amount of presence. In this paper, we present a thorough analysis of the state of the art of virtual reality training systems and outline the requirements of two peer stakeholders for disaster relief with an explicit focus on CBRN disaster preparedness. We discuss both analyses to draw conclusions if - and to which extent - existing virtual reality training solutions meet the stakeholder requirements. As a conclusion, we outline future research that must be conducted to fulfil the stakeholders’ requirements of a flexible multi-user immersive virtual reality training system.

We report on work in progress towards a practical implementation of a software defined overlay network that provides data delivery services at a freely definable and provably optimized quality of service. Our example implementation establishes transparent secure transmission, where security is in terms of confidentiality, authenticity and availability. Using general techniques from game-theory, we show how to simultaneously optimize several performance indicators of a transmission service, taking care of interdependencies and using security as a showcase application.

FOCUS ("Foresight Security Scenarios -Mapping Research to a Comprehensive Approach to Exogenous EU Roles") aims namely to define the most plausible threat scenarios that affect the "borderline" between the EU's external and internal dimensions to security.This article presents scenarios about alternative futures of security research to support a comprehensive approach of the "EU 2035" as a civil security provider.Three scenarios were selected as context scenarios for alternative futures of security research afterwards they have been lined up with drivers identified in a matrix procedure.From these three context scenarios six alternative futures for security research were evaluated using the portfolio-cluster-method.The weighting was done from a dual and interdependent perspective: a) nation/ member state vs. EU-level/international approach to civil security and b) position of the scenario on the continuum of internal/external security.Finally, the article introduces each scenario for alternative future of security research in detail.

In this paper we describe work in progress on a cross-media content analysis approach and framework, which is currently being developed within the QuOIMA project. We describe the role of media, and how possible links between social and traditional media and terminology and communication patterns are envisioned to be connected to the different phases of a disaster model. The paper continues with a discussion of potential benefits for decision makers and planners and concludes with an outlook on further planned activities and developments.

In this paper we describe the role of media in the context of natural disasters. Traditional media have a long history in covering disasters and will continue to be a major provider of information in the future. In recent years, however there has been a significant change: information about natural disasters has increasingly been disseminated on a large scale on social media platforms. These media are typically faster but may be less reliable. They provide additional and complementary angles on events and, combined with traditional media, provide a wider spectrum of coverage. We argue that cross-media information combined with multi-lingual data provides huge opportunities for first-responders and decision makers to gain improved situational awareness allowing for improved disaster relief, support, mitigation and resilience measures.

Europe still has to find its way to become a truly united state, overcoming diverse legal and political frameworks and moral understandings and ethical values. The FOCUS project, EU funded under the FP7 research program, has the goal to identify future EU roles in security research. One important aspect is an agreed and comprehensive set of security themes. This paper presents possible major security scenarios, their methodological finding and identified obstacles on the way to a more coordinated EU security strategy.