From news@well.sf.ca.us Fri Feb 17 10:39:59 1995 Return-Path: Received: from mx5.u.washington.edu by stein2.u.washington.edu (5.65+UW94.10/UW-NDC Revision: 2.32 ) id AA29329; Fri, 17 Feb 95 10:39:59 -0800 Received: from hitl-new.hitl.washington.edu by mx5.u.washington.edu (5.65+UW94.10/UW-NDC Revision: 2.31 ) id AA29616; Fri, 17 Feb 95 10:39:58 -0800 Received: by hitl.hitl.washington.edu; id AA02369; Fri, 17 Feb 1995 10:35:54 -0800 Received: from nkosi.well.com by relay3.UU.NET with ESMTP id QQydmw11694; Fri, 17 Feb 1995 13:39:58 -0500 Received: (from news@localhost) by nkosi.well.com (8.6.9/8.6.9) id KAA01418; Fri, 17 Feb 1995 10:37:53 -0800 To: sci-virtual-worlds@uunet.uu.net Path: avatarp From: avatarp@well.sf.ca.us (Peter Rothman) Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds Subject: Army to develop "holodeck-like" virtual reality system. Date: 17 Feb 1995 18:37:53 GMT Organization: The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA Lines: 152 Message-Id: <3i2qe1$1c8@nkosi.well.com> Nntp-Posting-Host: well.sf.ca.us X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.0 #1 (NOV) Status: OR AVATAR PARTNERS, INC. 13140 Central Avenue Boulder Creek CA 95006-9120 Friday, February 17, 1995 AVATAR PARTNERS TO DEVELOP FULL BODY WIRELESS VIRTUAL REALITY SYSTEM FOR DISMOUNTED INFANTRY TRAINING U.S. Army Simulation Training and Instrumentation Command funds development of "holodeck-like" virtual reality system FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Avatar Partners, Inc. of Boulder Creek California announced today that it has been notified of award of a $1 million research and development contract from the United States Army Simulation Training and Instrumentation Command (STRICOM) to develop the Dismounted Infantry Virtual Environment or DIVE system, a wireless unencumbered virtual reality system for infantry training applications. According to Peter Rothman, president of Avatar Partners Inc., "The DIVE project represents a significant step forward in synthetic environment technology in terms of both immersion and realism. DIVE is the first step towards the creation of the holodeck." The DIVE system consists of a network of up to twenty individual DIVE Chambers, each of which generates a window into a shared synthetic environment. The DIVE Chamber generates an immersive three dimensional visual, audio, and tactile environment which allows individual participants to enter a shared virtual battlefield. Applications of the DIVE system include hazardous operations training and simulation for both military and civilian operations, and location based entertainment. Similar to the system seen in the popular movie Disclosure, the DIVE system includes an unencumbered full body tracking system. This system allows the users body to be tracked without encumbering cables or tethers. Within the virtual environment, the user sees an animated character or "virtual body" which follows his body motions in real-time. This "virtual body" enables natural navigation of the virtual environment when walking, climbing, and running; or when manipulating virtual objects. The DIVE system employs an advanced multi-processing architecture for realistic modeling of environmental physics, weapons effects, real-time collision detection, and other functions. Each DIVE Chamber includes over a dozen computer systems which are coordinated with Avatars proprietary software to create a highly realistic synthetic environment. Other features of the DIVE system include a wireless head tracking head mounted display, speaker independent voice recognition system, multi-channel surround sound system, computer generated synthetic characters, instrumented props (i.e. weapons, tools, etc.) and a wearable computer system. The DIVE contract is developing more than just a single simulation system, it is also developing an open system architecture which will be made available to other vendors to allow their equipment and software to interface with the DIVE network. An interface control document describing the DIVE system interfaces will be published and made available to interested parties in late 1995. Contact: Peter Rothman, President Avatar Partners, Inc. 800-4DIVEIN (800-434-8346) 408-338-6460 408-338-6462 FAX e-mail: avatarp@well.sf.ca.us ### ### ###