DARPA Funds Research on VR, AR Cyber Breach Impact on Users

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded funding to two Louisiana State University researchers for a research project titled “Mixed Reality Visual Deception for Mission Deviation & Distraction.”

The military has been employing virtual and augmented reality applications that come with cybersecurity risks. With DARPA’s $600,000 funding grant, researchers Ibrahim Baggili and Andrew Webb will study how compromised software and hardware could affect human behavior and control or influence users, the Louisiana State University said.

Baggili, a professor of computer science and engineering at the LSU College of Engineering, previously conducted research on a cybersecurity incident, called the human joystick attack, which involves exploiting VR systems to control immersed users to move them to a location in real, physical space without their knowledge.

Webb, an LSU assistant professor, specializes in studying human-computer interaction, with the aim of making devices and applications more user-friendly through design improvements. As part of the DARPA-funded project, Webb is developing a virtual reality game to gather data on how study participants react to false, deceptive or excessive information.

LSU students will be the subject of the study because their age, diversity and familiarity with technology have similarities to those entering military service.