Though Cubic is a large and serious company involved in all kinds of military-related businesses and even public transportation, their solution for training the military rookies looks very entertaining and it is also non-dangerous. Cubic Corporation's new training system is called COMBATREDI and will probably make you completely forget about laser tag arenas or paint ball.

How will the newly arrived soldiers be training with COMBATREDI? Well, the whole system is a little complex, since it is composed out of a wearable, sensor-packing computer thingy which is placed on your back, a high-definition helmet-mounted OLED display which delivers “game-quality graphics” and an integrated 3D stereo headset for sound effects. The OLED display has a 60 by 45 degree field of view, which allows for the rookies to play/train in a 360-degree virtual environment as if they were on a real battlefield.

The best part is yet to come, namely the realistic wireless “surrogate” rifle, which performs just like a real one, meaning that its users will have to pay attention to all the details regarding the firing mode. Now connect all of the above information with the ability of the sensor-equipped computer to understand whether the trainee is kneeling, lying on the ground or looking in a certain direction and you get one of the best augmented reality first person shooters available until now.

Unfortunately, Cubic introduced it last year to potential military users and will most likely never hit the arcades. Looks extremely fun, though it misses some force feedback, don't you think? Engadget has the full story.

"Cubic is pleased that it hasn't taken long for the groundbreaking characteristics of COMBATREDI to be recognized by the user community," said Tony Padgett, Immersive Product Line Manager for Cubic Simulation Systems in Orlando. "COMBATREDI fully immerses trainees into the virtual environment. This is a whole new way to train the dismounted soldier."


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