This press release is copyrighted by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE). Its use is granted only to journalists and news media. Embargo date: 26 February 2002, 5:00 p.m. ET.
Weeks before U.S. pilots took to the skies above Afghanistan, they had a pretty good idea of what they would see there. Already they had logged many hours doing virtual flythroughs over the rugged mountain terrain. Seated at computer consoles, pilots could visualize soaring from ground level up to 12 000 meters, at speeds approaching 2250 kilometers per hour. The detailed 3-D renderings, created from aerial photos, satellite imagery, and intelligence data, helped them plot the best approach, scout for landmarks, and even identify targets.
As Dr. Michael Macedonia, chief scientist at the U.S. Army's Simulation Training and Instrumentation Command in Orlando, Fla., writes in the March issue of IEEE Spectrum, such virtual flythroughs are just one example of many powerful new simulation tools that the U.S. military is using to prepare soldiers, and their leaders, for battle. Thanks to sophisticated computer modeling and graphics, faster processors, and advances in artificial intelligence, simulation technology can now create a technology that stops just short of war.
And that's just the beginning. The armed forces are adapting Microsoft's Xbox and Sony Playstation 2 for distributed and networked war gaming. Meanwhile, in Southern California, the U.S. Army is backing an unusual group of artists, Hollywood special-effects experts and researchers at the Institute of Creative Technologies, to work on the next generation of trainers: immersive virtual-reality environments--akin to the "Star Trek" holodeck--in which real soldiers interact with synthetic yet life-life actors.
Contact: Michael Macedonia, 407 384 3502, [email protected]; Jean Kumagai, 212 419 7551,[email protected]. For a faxed copy of the complete article ("Games Soldiers Play" by Michael Macedonia, U.S. Army Stricom, IEEE Spectrum, March 2002, pp. 32-37) or to arrange an interview, contact: Nancy T. Hantman, 212 419 7561, [email protected].
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