Saving Lives with Simulations

Soon emergency medical technicians and firefighters may be able to practice responding to terrorist attacks using a virtual reality training tool under development at the Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories.

In the emergencies of tomorrow -- when rescue personnel may need to triage and treat mass casualties following release of a nerve agent in a shopping mall, theme park, or subway, for instance -- there will be no second chances. Rescuers who become victims of a terrorist attack can't save lives.

BioSimMER is a VR application that immerses first responders in a 3-D computer-simulated setting -- a small airport in which a biological warfare agent has been dispersed following a terrorist bombing. Simulated casualties with a variety of symptoms are found throughout the airport.

The computer simulation engages the rescuer's eyes, ears, and decision-making abilities through goggles that display the scene's images. The rescuer wears sensors on the arms, legs, and waist, allowing the player's motions to be fed back into the simulation.

"With virtual reality, you can practice over and over again, like in a video game," says project leader Sharon Stansfield. "You make mistakes, you learn. If someone dies, you can hit the reset button."

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Chief Learning Officer / The Videogame Generation

Did you see last week's Chief Learning Officer magazine’s Executive Briefing newsletter?

They ran a full story on “Gamimg and Simulations”, which highlights some of
BrandGames’ recent accomplishments.

Read and enjoy!

July 20, 2005 Volume 3, Issue 29
Executive Briefing:
Kellye Whitney, Associate Editor Gaming in Simulations Not Child’s Play
If you've been thinking seriously about investing in simulations to round out your learning and development offerings, you're not alone. More and more companies are enjoying the benefits of this realistic learning tool, and are taking advantage of the gaming quality in many new products to appeal to younger employees.

Click here to read the full article

Please visit www.brandgames.com/learning for client case studies.

Regards,

Jim Wexler
EVP, Marketing
212-780-0140 x203

Collaborating... with Dress-Up Dolls

Got Collaboration?

The ability to collaborate is the key attraction to General Electric's award-winning "Imagination Cubed" online program, which allows users to create virtual line drawings.

Unveiled last week on GE.com, the program allows up to three people to doodle illustrations on the same Web page at the same time and communicate during the process through a customized chat interface.

The program experienced viral success -- participants from 140 countries e-mailed 6 million sketches to 1.5 million different recipients, GE reported.

"It's about being able to harness the creativity of several people in a single space and build on that idea" said Tim McCleary, GE global director, brand and online advertising.

Click here to try it out

Like to watch?

Talk about on-line shopping! A new GAP campaign delivers an indelible impression, with a 3-D avatar dress-up doll and virtual dressing room . You pick your body size/person/style . She takes over from there.

Click here to see for yourself

Corporate Culture: In a galaxy far, far away

LucasFilms leaves the ranch…

George Lucas has a gleaming new $350 million headquarters in the middle of the Presidio, a former Army post on the edge of San Francisco, where the public can mingle beside the fancy new Yoda fountain with company employees.

For decades LucasFilms, the director’s privately held company, and its two main divisions – LucasArts, the video game producer, and Industrial Light and Magic, a leading designer of special effects – were tucked away in barely marked structures in northern San Rafael and behind the impenetrable walls of Skywalker Ranch.

“We spent a lot of years hidden away,” says Micheline Chau, president of Lucasfilm, “and I’m not sure if it was good for the company as a whole. To be the epicenter of the digital revolution, we have to be out here, evangelizing the cause".

Now, for the first time the two divisions will be at the same location, sharing the same computer system - said to be the largest in the industry - with simultaneous access to a single digital library. "We're not just talking about convergence," said Cliff Plumer, Lucasfilm's chief technology officer, "We're doing it."

The often fog-shrouded Presidio of San Francisco has a long and extensive cultural history spanning back thousands of years, to when it was the home to native people known as the Ohlone. The Spanish arrived in 1776 to establish the northernmost outpost of their empire in western North America. Over 148 years, the army transformed the Presidio grounds from mostly empty windswept dunes and scrub to a verdant, preeminent military post. Not quite a Death Star, but close.

The new 865,000-square-foot Letterman Center campus puts the public in touch with the company, who's goal is to be a Top 5 publisher, and allows employees to enjoy being part of San Francisco’s developing entertainment industry.

As for George… He’s staying at the ranch… with his figurines.

Think you're better than Bush?

“The Most Serene Republic of Anstar is a tiny, socially progressive nation, renowned for its absence of drug laws. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, intelligent population of 5 million enjoy extensive civil freedoms, particularly in social issues, while business tends to be more regulated. The medium-sized, liberal government is mainly concerned with Social Welfare, although Healthcare and Education are secondary priorities.”

What? You never heard of the Republic of Anstar?

Don’t worry – you’re not lacking on your knowledge of world nations, but you probably are missing out on one of the web’s hottest sites: www.nationstates.net.

NationStates is a world political simulation that allows you to easily create your own country and decide how it will be run. During registration, you pick your country's name, flag, national animal, political style, and other basic features. NationStates then asks you to address one political issue each day – new laws take effect over night – and you can see how you rank as a political leader.

Laid-back liberal democracy or oppressive dictatorship? The choices are all yours.