From DARPA to LAN
With the end of the Cold War, a stronger emphasis was placed during the 1990s on running a fiscally efficient military built on the practices of sound business and of making military procurement practices interface seamlessly with commercial industrial manufacturing processes. With pressure to reduce military spending applied by the Federal Acquisitions Streamlining Act of 1994, the Department of Defense remodeled policies and procedures on procurement (through DOD Directives 5000.1 and 5000.2) that had been in place for over 25 years. Among the policies the new directives established was a move away from the historically based DOD reliance on contracting with segments of the US technology and industrial base dedicated to DOD requirements, moving instead by statutory preference toward the acquisition of commercial items, components, processes and practices. In the new mandated hierarchy of procurement acquisition, commercially available alternatives are to be considered first, while choice of a service-unique development program has the lowest priority in the hierarchy. DOD components were directed to acquire systems, subsystems, equipment, supplies and services in accordance with the statutory requirements for competition set out in directive 10 USC 2304. Organizational changes were required to implement these changes. Adapting technology development and acquisition to the fast-paced high technology sector of the US economy meant adopting simplified flexible management processes found in commercial industry, including the institutionalization of Integrated Product Teams, treating cost as an independent variable, and implementing a paperless procurement system of electronic commerce by the year 2000. Program managers were informed that this mandated change meant that military planners would work more closely with industrial partners in team fashion sharing information on designs and specifications. In effect these changes, introduced by Secretary of Defense William Perry, have transformed military contracting units into business organizations. In keeping with this new shift in mentality, “Company” websites now routinely list their “product of the month.”
As we have seen, the DOD has been the major source of long-term funding for 3-D graphics and work on VR throughout their 30-year history. As a result of its changes in procurement and indeed its entire culture for contracting, the DOD will continue to be a major force in developing these technologies in the near future, both through DARPA funding for support of graphics labs at universities and through DOD funding of military projects. Directive 5000.1 on defense procurement acquisition mandated that models and simulations be required of all proposed systems, and that “representations of proposed systems (virtual prototypes) shall be embedded in realistic, synthetic environments to support the various phases of the acquisition process, from requirements determination and initial concept exploration to the manufacturing and testing of new systems, and related training.” The total 1998 budget for programs for modeling and simulation exceeded $2.5 billion. When such considerable resources are channeled through the new DOD procurement system intent upon seamless integration into the civilian high-tech industrial sector, a new and important role of federal funding in the post-Cold War era as accelerator of the development and dissemination of modeling and simulation technologies becomes evident.
An example suggesting the crucial role federal funding will continue to play in the future of visualization and simulation technology is provided by the growing synergy between the U.S. Army’s Simulation Training and Instrumentation Command (STRICOM) and the entertainment industry. For the last several years, the videogame industry has been one of the fastest growing sectors of the entertainment business. Physicians and computer scientists working on real-time volume rendering of medical imaging data are quick to point out that the systems they are developing to depend on the ability to deliver live 3-D images on a desktop computer in a physician’s office. This will require improved graphics capabilities in PCs and higher bandwidth networking technologies. Developments in the entertainment industry such as those emerging from the partnership between Nintendo and Silicon Graphics produce such capabilities. In a similar fashion, those engaged in the VR field have argued that VR’s breakthrough to acceptance has depended on the dissemination of VR technologies in the entertainment market for videogames and video arcades. One of the brightest new players in that industry is Real3D of Orlando, Florida.
While its present incarnation is new, Real3D has a venerable history tracing its origins back to the first GE Aerospace Visual Docking Simulator for the Apollo lunar landings. In 1991, GE Aerospace began exploring commercial applications of its real-time 3D graphics technology, which led to a contract with Sega Enterprises Ltd. of Japan, the largest manufacturer of arcade systems in the world. Sega was interested in improving its arcade graphics hardware so their games would present more realistic images. GE Aerospace adapted a miniaturized version of their real-time 3D graphics technology specifically for Sega’s Model 2 and Model 3 arcade systems, incorporating new algorithms for features such as antialiasing and able to provide a visual experience far exceeding expectations. To date, Sega has shipped more than 200,000 systems that include what is today Real 3D technology.
This spinoff of technology originally developed for defense contracts is not in itself new, but the next phase of the story points to the impact of the procurement reforms in creating a synergy between government and industry sectors of potential benefit to both the research and the industrial communities. In the newly streamlined, flexibly managed military of the 90s, STRICOM is the DOD’s executive agent in charge of developing the Advanced Distributed Simulation Technology Program behind much of the military’s simulator training efforts. STRICOM has an interesting web presence. On one side of STRICOM’s spinning weblogo is a figure in what might be either a space suit or a cleanroom suit worn by a chip worker. In the background are objects that could be tanks or chips on a board. The figure holds what could be a laser gun. Just when the viewer begins to wonder,”Is this a video game?”, the reverse side of the spinning logo dispels that illusion. The figure there holds a lightning bolt as a weapon, but is otherwise a traditional helmet-clad soldier. The rim of the logo reads, “All But War Is Simulation.”
In its capacity as manager of the military simulation training effort STRICOM arranged a partnership of the San Diego-based Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and Lockheed Martin to develop hardware, software, and simulation systems for, among other things, networking simulations in live simulation environments such as SIMNET. Given the new imperative to build on products supplied by commercial industry, one key to success in this program of “integrated product development” is the development of standards for distributed interactive simulations (DIS standards) and the high-level software architecture (HLA) that sets specifications, interfaces and standards for a wide range of simulations.The adoption of these standards across the board by industry and by the American National Standards Institute prepares the ground for assimilating networked videogaming and more robust military simulations.
Developments connected with companies like Real3D can be seen as seminal in the historical evolution of the Post-Cold War effort to create a seamless environment in which research work carried out for the high-end military projects can be integrated with systems in the commercial sector. In 1993, GE Aerospace was acquired by Martin Marietta, another leader in the field of visual simulation. Martin Marietta not only advocated expansion of the relationship with Sega, but also encouraged further research and analysis to look at other commercial markets, such as personal computers and graphics workstations. In 1995, Martin Marietta merged with Lockheed Corporation to form Lockheed Martin, and shortly thereafter launched Real 3D to focus solely on developing and producing 3D graphics products for commercial markets. To that end in November 1996 a strategic alliance was formed between Real3D and Chips and Technologies, Inc. of San Jose, CA, aimed at selling and distributing Real 3D®’s R3D/100 two-chip graphics accelerator exclusively to the PC industry, and bringing world class 3D applications in the PC environment to professionals who use 3D graphics acceleration on Windows® NT machines. Finally, in December 1997, Lockheed Martin established Real 3D, Inc. as an independent company and at the same time announced Intel had purchased a 20 percent stake in the firm. Real 3D thus builds on more than three decades of experience in real-time 3D graphics hardware and software going back to the Apollo Visual Docking Simulator, experience in a variety of projects related to construction of real-time distributed simulations, and its considerable intellectual property, consisting of more than 40 key patents on 3-D graphics hardware and software. These assets, together with its strategic relationships to Lockheed Martin, Intel, and Chips, positions the company well for getting high-end graphics from leading edge research environments onto the desktops of physicians, engineers, and scientists. The company profits from its role as a supplier of commercial videogame technologies developed by companies like Sega to the research community developing military training simulators.
But it is not just the 3D graphics capabilities that are being made more widely accessible through such developments. High level research on distributed simulation environments such as SIMNET and on the use of artificial intelligence in generating synthetic agents, both high priority research problems in computer science, are other examples of federally funded research work being more rapidly disseminated through the military’s new integrated product teams. Once again, Real3D’s relation to Intel and the entertainment industry is thought-provoking. Intel is committed to advancing the capabilities of the PC platform; with its Pentium II processor with MMX technology, the corporation has launched an all-out campaign focused on bringing 3D technology to mainstream PCs. In July 1997 Intel with 60 hardware and software manufacturers in the arcade industry including Real 3D, Evans and Sutherland, 3Dfx Interactive, and Quantum 3D, joined in the Open Arcade Architecture Forum to encourage the development of hardware and software for open arcade systems through proactive market development efforts that ensure systems and software compatibility, while delivering arcade-game performance equaling or exceeding proprietary systems. The Open Arcade Architecture (OAA) specification, which Intel announced in April 1997, supports dual processor-based arcade systems, which allow for faster, richer games and provide additional processing power for networking, video and voice conferencing.
Examination of the work and careers of individuals who have participated in both the military simulation community and the entertainment industry suggests paths through which the dissemination of research ideas across these seemingly different fields takes place. For example, prior to joining Walt Disney Imagineering in 1992, Dr. Eric Haseltine was an executive at Hughes Aircraft Co., where he held a series of posts in the Human Factors, Flight Simulation, and Display System areas. Haseltine joined Hughes in 1979 after completing a Ph.D. in physiological psychology at Indiana University and a post-doctoral fellowship in neuroanatomy at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Haseltine has published in the fields of Sensory Physiology, Neuroanatomy, Flight Simulation, Training Systems Development, and Display Systems Engineering; and he holds a number of patents in laser projection and electro-optical imaging. At Disney Imagineering Haseltine is vice president and chief scientist of research and development of projects including advanced head-mounted displays, optical systems, wireless communications, user interfaces, paperless animation systems data security, and biomedical imaging.
Dr. Robert S. Jacobs, currently director and president of Illusion, Incorporated, offers a similarly illustrative profile. He has a B.S.E. in systems engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles, an M.S. in management science from the University of Southern California, and a Ph.D. in engineering psychology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Having headed up the design team at Perceptronics that worked on the original design of SIMNET, he has been a technical contributor to the majority of later, related training programs. At Illusion Jacobs has directed the definition, development, and manufacturing of advanced technology training and simulation products including analytical studies, hardware design, software development and courseware production.
SIMNET has been an incubator for the ideas and technology behind many current-generation video games. Consider the company description of WizBang! Software Productions, Inc., which created the 3D environments for Hyperblade and Microsoft Baseball:
(“WizBang!”) is a 3D computer games company founded in 1994. WizBang!’s founders and staff combine expertise and years of experience in military simulation, artificial intelligence, traditional gaming, music composition and theater production, as well as game development. With this unique perspective, they continue to be at the forefront of the ever-evolving high-tech game industry.
Indeed among WizBang!’s illustrious team members is company founder Stuart Rosen, with experience in both the development of computer games and military simulations. Rosen’s computer game development experience began at Atari where he managed the PAC MAN project for Atari’s home computer and advanced video game. Rosen also headed the design team for one of the first movie-to-computer game spin-offs: Stephen Spielberg’s E.T. Rosen left Atari to manage the Image Generation Department at Singer-Link Flight Simulation, one of the early companies in the flight simulator business, which built such systems as the Apollo Docking Station and the DC8 flight simulator used in airlines around the world, and many others. For Singer-Link Rosen developed virtual reality databases and advanced modeling tools for pilot training simulators. Rosen then moved to Bolt Beranek & Newman Advanced Simulation, where he led the design, development and integration of networked interactive simulation systems for U.S., British and Japanese forces. This included extensive work on the SIMNET project.
Andrew Johnston, WizBang!’s other founder and president, was also a key contributor to SIMNET. Along with M. Cyrus from Boeing Johnston was the co-founder, vice president and director of engineering of Delta Graphics (later acquired by Bolt Beranek & Newman), and he directed the software development effort for the Computer Image Generator (CIG) I have described above, the CAD modeling system for the CIG database, and commercial computer animation software. Prior to that, while at the Boeing Aerospace Company in Seattle, Johnston managed a group of 45 engineers involved in research and development in advanced computer-image generation; he was a key architect of a real-time 3D computer-image generation system under contract with DARPA. This system was the basis of the Boeing B1-B Weapons System Trainer, a large scale computer-image generation system.
