Integrating Big Data analytics, virtual reality, and ARAIG to support resilience assessment and development in tactical training

Combat tactical training activities utilising virtual reality environments are being used increasingly to create training scenarios to promote resilience against stressors and to enable standardized training scenarios to allow trainees to learn techniques for various stressors. Resilience is an important component for mental health. However, assessment of the trainees' response to these training activities has either been limited to various pre and post training assessment metrics or collected in parallel during experiments and analysed after collection rather than in real-time. New Big Data approaches have the potential to provide real-time analytics. We have created a Big Data analytics platform, Athena, that in real-time acquires data from a first person shooter military combat simulation game, ArmA 3, as well as the data ArmA 3 sends to the muscle stimulation component of a multisensory garment, ARAIG that provides on the body feedback to the wearer for communications, weapon fire and being hit and integrates that data with physiological response data such as heart rate, breathing behaviour and blood oxygen saturation. We present results from our initial pilot study from an ethics approved equipment integration study. Our approach is equally applicable for Virtual Reality Graded Exposure Therapy with physiological monitoring.