DARPA has chosen Raytheon BBN to lead a team to develop an augmented reality device It is reported that the device will be used as a virtual assistant for combat medical personnel and use artificial intelligence to guide them to complete 50 different medical procedures.
When it comes to increasing the chances of survival of battlefield casualties, field doctors are the most important factor. This is because the medical staff are the first to arrive at the scene and give assistance in the so-called prime time or even the golden ten minutes. If the right action is taken quickly before sending the wounded to the rear for appropriate treatment, rapid assistance at this time may mean the difference between life and death.
The problem is that although medical staff are strictly trained, they are usually not surgeons, and they may often have no experience and cannot implement rarely used procedures in an instant. To this end, DARPA is studying its medical assistance, guidance, instruction and correction (Magic) system. The system consists of an off the shelf pair of augmented reality goggles equipped with audio and video sensors that allow AI assistants to monitor the situation and advise medical staff how to proceed.
According to Raytheon, magic will be able to handle this difficult task, thanks to machine learning. It will enable the system to learn medical skills and evaluate it by studying 2500 stereo videos and nearly 50 million images. This huge information base will make magic's learning style basically the same as that of millions of digital assistant users, who unconsciously teach devices how to understand and speak various dialects and accents of English and other languages without laborious programming.
When it is properly trained, it is hoped that magic will be able to provide oral advice to doctors or project visual covers on site to guide their hands. In addition, the system can recommend subsequent steps, display the flow chart of the procedure, provide measurement results, record the elapsed time and determine the dose of the drug.
Magic's first demonstration is scheduled to begin in 18 months.
Brian van Voorst, Raytheon BBN scientist, said: "the combat medical environment is challenging and chaotic. Our goal for the Raytheon BBN magic AI tool is to help support personnel provide guidance as needed without disturbing their attention."