Serious Gaming for Improvised Explosive Device Neutralization Training

An improvised explosive device (IED) is a “homemade” bomb intended to cause great harm when it explodes. The public safety task of identifying and neutralizing IEDs falls to military and police services often called explosive disposal units (EDU) who act to neutralize the threat associated with the IED either rendering it inoperable or destroying it safely. EDUs train in various aspects of explosive handling and investigation but are limited in the tools available for safely analyzing real world bombs. This paper describes a game based approach to IED training that employs an interactive 3D simulation to spatially identify key IED components of interest. We give an example of how this approach might be used and provide a preliminary evaluation of its potential effectiveness. We employ images formed from a Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) system captured using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technology to a virtual IED in a game. Empirical evaluation and EDU testimony suggest accurate representation of the IED and the potential efficacy of the proposed approach for successfully identifying components in the bomb for the purposes of EDU training.