"If particular experts aren't available in the disaster area, they can direct field staff from the control center. For example, suppose a chemical plant is required to be shut down, an expert in the control center can view the situation via the field operative's wearable technology, and give directions to the field staff on how to close the plant, even circling which lever to operate in the field operative's view through the goggles," Thomas said.

The project consists of three components: the indoor visualization control room, the outdoor wearable AR system, and collaboration between the indoor and outdoor systems.

Thomas said although his team has had a number of years experience developing and investigating control room technologies for intense collaboration applications, such as defense planning, this solution has some differences.

"There are a number of critical areas, [where this project is different] such as visualization of real-time information from one or more people in field, directing people in the field, communicating with people in the field with AR information, and the presentation of data in a temporal, coherent fashion," he said.

The technology has a other potential uses, such as in viticulture or defense, Thomas said.