Simulation & Games-Based Training Technologies

Background

The HFI DTC is actively conducting research on the potential use of computer games technologies to deliver affordable and accessible individual/small group-training packages for defence applications. This research attempts to move the exploitation of games hardware and software beyond entertainment, with the aim of delivering engaging interactive media to support learning in its broadest sense. In addition to learning in traditional educational settings, gaming technologies are also being applied to simulation-based training in defence, healthcare and cultural awareness, to the fields of political and social change and, slowly, to the domain of virtual prototyping and simulation-based acquisition. Not only are many of the emerging applications deliverable either via CD, DVD or memory sticks, the Web is increasingly offering a natural medium for launching serious games and recording and archiving participant's performances for the purposes of proving a variety of learning outcomes. In addition, tools are becoming available that support the development of i3D content by a much wider range of contributors than was the case with, for example, Virtual Reality in the 1990s. Many of these tools - and the engines that bring their results to life - are made available by mainstream entertainment games companies such as Crytek (CryEngine 1 and 2 and SandBox 1 and 2 from FarCry and Crysis), Valve (Half-Life 2) and id Software (Quake). Whilst many of the commercially-oriented tools and engines demand significant investment for commercially exploitable applications, other, Open Source systems often permit licence-free development and distribution. Recent games-based simulation case studies have delivered successful proof-of-concept demonstrators to a variety of stakeholders, illustrating the value of incorporating human-centred knowledge into the early project design stages. These results are applicable regardless of whether the demonstrators are based on traditional gaming concepts (preserving the quest for entertainment and engagement), or on the straightforward exploitation of the quality and functionality of games engines and software development kits for contemporary interactive 3D applications (such as part-task training).

• Detailed information on research, downloadable reports
• Questions on this area of research can be addressed to Prof Bob Stone