Advanced Personal Digital Assistant for Training and Simulation

Realistic computer simulation and gaming applications require very close integration of large amounts of data that describe everything from how an object looks to where it exists in the simulation space. Historically, data controlling the various aspectsof a simulation were stored in multiple, incompatible, and often proprietary formats. The rapid acceptance of XML and development of global XML standards such as SMIL, X3D, and GML make it feasible to build a unified simulation platform that is based onmanipulating and presenting XML data. To implement such a platform that can execute realistically on a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) requires that efficient algorithms for XML compression, filtering, transformation, and storage be found. Enterprise WebMachines proposes to build a proof-of-concept application that shows how such a unified XML-based simulation platform could be built. Existing gaming and simulation platforms depend heavily on proprietary data formats and software developers to produce aquality product. A completely open and extensible platform built upon XML would yield tremendous time and cost reductions in both the simulation/gaming development cycle as well as subsequent customization by users in the field. Building such a platformfor a high-end PDA would allow very detailed simulation scenarios to be tailored to real-world conditions on-the-fly. This product would have tremendous value for commanders who need to train troops to meet rapidly changing conditions that arise in thefield. This same technology could also be sold into the computer game development market as a foundation for efficiently creating new PDA-based games.