philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

USC Students Compete in Augmented Reality NASA SUITS Challenge

... A recent challenge issued by NASA’s Spacesuit User Interface Technologies for Students (SUITS), launched in 2017, tasked students with designing and creating spacesuit information displays that share vitals, location and more within augmented reality environments.

USC’s and University of Arizona’s “Team Aegis” was one of 10 finalists in the SUITS challenge. Their display uses the Microsoft HoloLens 2 platform, a hands-free holographic device, and would host AR applications through the Unity game engine. For an astronaut exploring the moon, the user-friendly interface would share crucial information such as location tracking of the astronaut and rover, and vitals such as heart rate and oxygen levels. ...

Founded by Darlene Villicaña, a USC visual anthropology master’s student researching extravehicular interfaces, Team Aegis began as a group of 11 students. In December 2021, after its proposal was accepted by the NASA SUITS program, the team grew quickly to over 60 students from multiple disciplines and experience levels. Advised by USC Viterbi Professors David Barnhart and Garrett Reisman — as well as University of Arizona Assistant Professor Jessica Barnes — the students created an ambitious set of goals, a schedule and smaller teams that could work together to meet milestones. ...

Garrett Reisman, a former NASA astronaut, said, “Our USC/Arizona team did a great job and learned some very important real-world engineering lessons. Plus we had the best sizzle-reel video. ...

See the full story here: https://viterbischool.usc.edu/news/2022/07/usc-students-compete-in-augmented-reality-nasa-suits-challenge/