Distributed Interactive Virtual Reality to Support Weapons Systems Concept Evaluations

Evaluation of hypothetical weapons systems is costly in a BDS environment for two reasons. First, construction and modification of man-machine interfaces is costly and time-consuming. Secondly, construction and modification of network interfaces is costly and time-consuming, and often entails changes to older, pre-existing BDS software. MaK proposes to develop a Distributed Virtual Reality: an innovative, two-pronged approach to applying Virtual Reality to hypothetical weapons system concept evluations. First, VR man-machine interface (MMI) technology will be evaluated for application to reconfigurable man-machine interfaces. Second, dynamic adaptive VR network protocols will be designed for application to reconfigurable inter-simulator interfaces. Based on extensive SIMNET simulator-construction experience and on on-going research, MaK proposes trade studies to determin the suitability of current and planned VR MMI offerings for simulator MMIs. based on extensive experience with SIMNET network protocols, and on prior experience designing DIS protocol extensions, MaK will design dynamic, adaptive VR extensions to DIS 1.0 for inter-simulator interfaces.