From: Roy_W_Latham@cup.portal.com
Subject: Re: SOCIETY: VR in the military
Date: Sat, 10 Jul 93 11:16:28 PDT



Markus Schlegal asked if VR was a BIG topic in the defense community,
and if security prevented civilian access.

Yes, VR is a big topic in the defense community, and no, security is
not much of an obstacle to getting access to information. In times of
shrinking defense budgets, simulation is gaining interest because it
is an alternative to expensive operation of real systems. Also
simulation offers the possibility of having very large, multi-role
exercises that would be physically impossible to stage, and it offers
the possibility of training in areas that are physically unavailable
due to occupation by bad guys.  The U.S. Army recently let a $409M
contract for networked armor simulators, for example.

While exercises run on simulators are usually classified, I cannot
think of anything about the simulator technology that is classified. A
greater obstacle is that the aerospace companies like to keep their
stuff as proprietary trade secrets.

The International Training Equipment Conference in Europe is an
excellent resource, and has great real time exhibits. The counterpart
in the U.S. is even bigger, the Interservice/Industry Training Systems
and Education Conference (I/ITSEC, "its-sick") has a hundred
exhibitors and over 2000 attendees. These conferences are about
two-thirds VR and simulation, the rest other kinds of training.
I/ITSEC will be in Orlando (Florida) in late November this year. The
IMAGE conferences are even more focused on simulation and VR
technologies, especially as related to aerospace and other high end
applications. Finally, I can scarcely overlook my own newsletter, REAL
TIME GRAPHICS, which is pretty much devoted to the concept of
technology sharing among defense, aerospace, and commercial
applications of VR and simulation.

Contacts:

ITEC, 2101 Wilson Blvd, Suite 400, Arlington, VA 22201
(Sorry, I don't have the current European ITEC contact)

I/ITSEC, American Defense Prepared Association, same address as above

IMAGE, The IMAGE Society, e-mail image@acvax.inre.asu.edu

Real Time Graphics, e-mail roy_w_latham@cup.portal.com

All of the above offer back issues of proceedings, etc.