US Army Developing Mixed Reality Boxing Simulator in Second Life; Prefers SL Over Defense-Oriented VR System

Sounds like Wii Boxing, but developed with American tax dollars by a branch of the US Army that's using similar technology for combat simulation.  On the blog of Dan Miller, a Senior Economist with the US Congress' Joint Economic Committee-- back in 2006, he wrote a landmark paper on tax policy in virtual worlds-- he reports attending a recent Capitol Hill demo put on by the Army's PEO STRI -- Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training, & Instrumentation.  As he describes it,

[A] 3-D camera and Second Life (plus 3 large LCD panels). The 3-D camera translates the movement of a human being into movement by an avatar. In the demonstration I saw, there was a virtual punching bag that existed solely in Second Life. When the user throws a punch in the real world, the system reacts by showing the virtual punching bag being hit. Users can also move their avatars around Second Life simply by leaning forward.

Intriguing, especially because the 3D camera interface seems strikingly similar to the "Hands Free 3D" technology that Linden Lab founding investor Mitch Kapor developed last year with Philippe Bossut. (Though it's unclear as yet if the Army's using the same system for this project.)  As for future applications, it's easy to see this integrated into other STRI virtual world combat simulators, like the one at left borrowed from the official site. 

While the Second Life application is still in R&D phase, PEO STRI's press officer Kristen Dooley McCullough tells me by email, "It has the potential to be used in a myriad of situations in which the Soldier will be fully immersed in the virtual world that he or she is interacting," she writes.

"The Soldier will be able to move, pick up objects, interact with other people, etc., etc., such that he or she reacts to the virtual environment while the environment also reacts to his or her actions."

Here's another curious thing:  the virtual environment platform that's far more popular for national defense applications is OLIVE, from Forterra Systems (a spinoff company of the teen virtual world There.)  However, reports Miller, "the Army has begun using Second Life to a significant degree... [because it] has the appeal of being open source, so end users (such as PEO STRI) can easily develop their own scenarios."  Sounds like we're liable to see more military applications of SL coming in the near future.  (Especially now that Linden Lab has a government accounts coordinator based in Washington D.C.-- former Bush adminstration staffer Scott Sechser.)

Comments

[Rich]

Would this be Secondlife or Opensim they are leveraging? ... "has the appeal of being open source" made me wonder.

[Ann Otoole]

Are they actually in Second Life or using open source grid technology that was derived from Second Life? I.e.; Is the U.S. Army leasing sims from Linden Lab?