Military forces around the world rely on computer-based simulators to provide invaluable training for today’s warfighters. More and more military branches are turning to the simulation and virtual training market to increase retention and performance of our treasured warfighters, maximizing the benefits of this training technology. Computer wargames in military training have had a good run, but not until recently have you seen more and more publicity around them… sure, we can thank the military for their secretive ways on this one. These simulations and virtual training projects train military staff in a full gamut of activities; ranging from training exercises to rehearsing for complex systems, all of which provide a diverse range of training requirements that must be met. The world’s simulation industry is growing larger and larger with the United States being the leader in the simulation and virtual training markets, followed closely by the UK. Sure, sometimes resources (mainly funding) are hard to come by meaning that a lot of potential training that could be developed never makes it from the initial proposal stage to the drawing board and eventual implementation. These mission rehearsal modeling tools are aiding in overall military readiness by streamlining training capabilities. One thing is for sure it beats the so-called BOGSAT (or Bunch of Guys Sitting Around a Table). Emerging technologies are changing the way today’s military trains-up.

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By Ed Heinbockel, President and CEO, Visual Purple, LLC

I keep seeing a myriad of speculation on what Phillip Rosedale is working on within his newly founded company, The Love Machine. Out of the three projects mentioned on the company website, perhaps the third project is the most intriguing “The Brain. Can 10,000 computers become a person?” With little other information forthcoming one can only conjecture what Phillip and his team are actually up to with respect to Artificial Intelligence (AI) in virtual worlds.

The following are a few short remarks I would make on the subject: Hopefully more personality will be able to be infused into VW’s rather than just the run of the mill boring NPC’s and bots that exist out there today. Sure some NPC’s that are stationed in VW’s today provide no more stimuli to the player than talking to a brick wall. I say AI very well could be the next masterpiece to be infused into the virtual world. The caliber of content could be brought to new levels with the revelations that artificially intelligent NPC’s could bring to the table. Although many skeptics remain…Would AI in a virtual world feel more like a glorified ‘smart’ chat room? Is Artificial Intelligence really possible in a virtual world environment? Is there a real possibility of actually confusing another player that is non-human for a real human being? Will these potential AI characters actually be believable enough? Is there a timeline horizon when implementation may take place?

Sure the future of AI in virtual worlds may lie in the hands of Non-Player Characters (NPCs), but what this will actually look and play like remains unknown. This currently untapped market will more than likely see some interesting developments here in the near future. It is my belief that there are currently some covert operations of bringing AI into virtual worlds that just aren’t ready to be publicized yet. Will this new form of ‘humanoid’ be believable enough? Or will humans and AI “lifeforms” exist in the same worldly sphere. Although the inherent complexities of the virtual world are nothing like the real world it still brings a sense of awe to realize that Artificial Intelligence just may in-fact be possible, ultimately increasing the learning opportunities with virtual human interaction. We may someday ask ourselves, is that a real person or a ‘Smart’ NPC…hmmm, now wouldn’t THAT be interesting. Stay tuned…

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By Ed Heinbockel, President and CEO, Visual Purple, LLC

Something wonderful is happening.

The controlled nature of militaries usually results in standards being pushed down the chain. Refreshingly, we are witnessing a rare phenomenon. Bohemia Interactive and its delightfully robust 3D platform, Virtual Battle Space 2 (VBS2), is taking over militaries worldwide by storm.

This bottom-up emerging standard is a testament to warfighters needing to get things done…now! They found a solution that works better than officially mandated and very expensive top-down solutions. We’re seeing VBS2 as an evolving standard for our military with the Marines leading the way and the Army close behind.

Several important announcements around VBS2 are coming soon. Stay tuned!

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By Ed Heinbockel, President and CEO, Visual Purple, LLC

Nothing will drive an enterprise IT employee to reach for the Pepto-Bismol faster than the mention of virtual worlds! Why is that?
-Security issues and concerns
-Over-worked as it is
-Demands on “ancient” hardware
-Large client downloads (that must run through firewalls)-download limitations
-Bandwidth limitations
My point with this post is to illustrate that IT Departments need not endure heartburn over new virtual world technologies. While IT departments tend to be cautious, and understandably so, many viable options are coming on-line today that will calm and not upset the IT Gods. Stay tuned for specifics!

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By Ed Heinbockel, President and CEO (Head Heretic), Visual Purple, LLC

I’m witnessing some interesting virtual world developments of late. Not a scientific study to be sure, but a real, on-the-ground reality check. Quite simply: The emperor has no clothes.

Real companies and organizations with real training budgets are making real evals of real VW solutions. What they’re learning is an anathema for many in the VW community.

So here is the deal… Collaboration, since the beginning the holy grail of virtual worlds, is taking a backseat to the realities of building real world training for today’s digital workforce.

It’s not lost on those who have built VW applications as to probably why the collaboration drum has been beat so loud, for so long. Think about it: what else can you do in a virtual world unless you have the technology to embed logics to faithfully drive story, objects, behaviors, experiences, etc???? Well, about all you could do is co-op your friends or colleagues to join in and have a social, I mean, collaborative experience. I know, this is heresy. But then again, I’ve always been a bit of a heretic.

Collaboration has its place to be sure, great examples are what you can accomplish in Qwaq, Forterra and some SL apps by Rivers Run Red. But when it comes to real, high fidelity VW training invoked in a browser being dished up from a remote LMS with demonstrable results, what I’m hearing today is “…collaboration with a fence around it would be fine down the road. But right now, budgets are tight and we like virtual worlds because they cost-effectively deliver a compelling training experience that plays to today’s gamer savvy workforce. And realistically, all my people are very busy, dispersed and scheduling them all to be in world at one time is nearly impossible.” Dovetailing with this is a pervasive non-tech company corporate fear that the training will largely become a social experience. Message received. Get good asynchronous training in the hands of people now and prove the efficacy of VWs for training and learning. THEN walk the collaborative path…baby steps, collaborative baby steps… oh, and don’t forget your emperor’s, er, avatar’s clothes!

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By Ed Heinbockel, President and CEO, Visual Purple, LLC

Too often I hear about the lack of enterprise adoption of virtual worlds and why the technology is slow to be accepted in the workplace today. Among some of the reasons I have heard the most talked about have been: 1) Infrastructure Technology Barriers, and 2) Barrier to Adoption/ Learning curve. Of course the firewall and bandwidth issues will always be a problem to address no matter what type of learning/ training application an organization is looking at implementing. As for the second objection of a large learning curve, I believe that is up to the type of virtual application that the corporation is considering adopting. If it is a simpler training-focused virtual world user functionality is not limited- but the user is not given the full range of flying, speaking/ chatting, teleporting, etc. Within a training focused virtual world the user only needs the basic navigation operations (forward, back, left and right) and none of the fancier elements like raising a hand or teleporting. Another complaint is the size of the virtual world. Customized, private and secure worlds are built as big as you need them with room to expand. So size is no longer a factor.

The future of virtual worlds as an enterprise platform offer an organization willing to be on the cutting-edge an opportunity for high return on investment, shorter product development times, more flexibility of the training program, shorter train-up time and lower cost when compared to traditional methods. Let’s break down the barriers to adoption! Virtual worlds can and will be the next big ‘go-to’ for organizations to utilize for training needs…they are too effective and too efficient to not be widely adopted…a new standard in learning and training is upon us!

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By Ed Heinbockel, President and CEO, Visual Purple, LLC

Are games being taken seriously enough? For one reason or another, often the term ‘serious game’ results in negative stereotypes. But why? Perhaps more often than not simply for the term ‘game’ in the title. But serious games really can prove themselves as providing real learning and training value. In a “serious game,” training and education are the primary goals. Military simulations are among the more well known types of ‘serious games’. Of course there are a variety of serious games that are unrelated to military fields.

What do serious games bring to the table? Active involvement, relevance to the real world, increase in retention rates, the ability to practice and learn complex tasks in a safe environment, engagement of learners and improved performance (to name a few). Serious games offer a value beyond entertainment and are an extremely powerful training tool.

Will corporate America be the next to take on serious games as part of the training mix? With more and more organizations turning to the serious types of learning that actively involve the training, serious games just might be the next big thing (aside from sliced bread of course).

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By Ed Heinbockel, President and CEO, Visual Purple, LLC

Linden Lab recently released a case study that chronicles a comparatively basic virtual world experience with yet decidedly impressive results. I was able to experience this Second Life-based sim. Very basic, requires a full hands-on effort (a team of role-players so not very cost-effective to deploy); no real sim logics or NPC logics that we normally provide. So, it is not an efficient way to train nor does it guarantee a quality of experience that Visual Purple sims enjoy. In spite of these technical handicaps, they still turned in some impressive results:

1) Students who complete the program consistently have a 39% higher success rate at testing milestones than those that did not complete the virtual practice sessions. They also score better grades—roughly 30% higher that their counterparts who receive traditional classroom training…”
2) “The program has risen from a 56% testing success rate in 2007 to 93% by the end of 2008.”
3) “No single technological addition has ever impacted grades at the college in such a positive way…”

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By Ed Heinbockel, President and CEO, Visual Purple, LLC

Are you focusing on learner engagement and learning experience take-aways within current solutions? E-Learning can result in a hard pressed “push” of the learner’s results.

Let’s further examine a comparison of push vs. pull training… Within a virtual world environment the learner is able to “pull” content as they see fit with various types of overlays on top of the technologies driving the simulation. Logics are embedded to reveal specific information when needed. Virtual world training environments allow the general ability to watch what people are and are not doing while still honoring the different process styles associated with learning. Whereas within an e-Learning “push” environment the learner is pushed directly through the experiences, without the ability to alter the outcome and make decisions on their own.

Visual Purple and BTS transformed a traditional “push” e-Simulation into a “pull” virtual world environment. By leveraging existing training investments one can generate a higher learner/trainee retention rate, apply to wider range of audience and reap benefits from the significant cost savings. A virtual world approach will result in reduced training time, and improvement of overall learning effectiveness for the learner. By utilizing persistent world applications to guide the learner to succeed through decision-based scenarios enabling active participation, virtual world applications allow for engaging and realistic 3D training environments that are directly applicable to business needs. The key is to unlock potential from an existing “push” e-Learning solution and evolve it into a realistic and sticky “pull” virtual world training medium. Many top organizations are transitioning to virtual world based training solutions. Beginning from square one or utilizing an existing e-learning or CBT solution and transferring it into a successful virtual world training application. Virtual worlds offer the learner the foremost in freedom, interactivity and adaptability where specially tailored environments ensure realistic interaction and imagery to promote full emotional and intellectual engagement in any scenario.

View the trailer of the transformation from a “push” learning module to an immersive “pull” learning environment.

“- Link to”
YouTube Visual Purple Winning in Wireless Virtual World trailer

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By Ed Heinbockel, President and CEO, Visual Purple, LLC

We have an entertaining habit here at Visual Purple of diving down technology rabbit holes with a particular goal in mind and quickly finding ourselves looking squarely in the eyes of something far bigger, better and badder than anything we initially imagined. If we’re not careful, the proverbial technology tail would soon be wagging us. Looks like we may be living that dream today.

The ‘wouldn’t it be cool’ moment occurred some months back when we came to the realization that VWs demand avatars (NPCs) that behave in ways that would seem realistic and of utility. So we started down the path to achieve not Artificial Intelligence, but Behavioral Intelligence – or what we now choose to describe as Synthetic Intelligence. In future blogs we’ll break this down and explore the ‘why’ behind this naming convention as it implies much.

What about that tech rabbit hole, you ask? Oh yes, the rabbit hole. Think BIG databases. Think ‘smart’ databases. Think what that might do, distributed… got your attention now?
We’ll write more about this after our next patent filing. Stay tuned.

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