Aug 18, 2018; Houston, TX, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo (10) throws before the game against the Houston Texans at NRG Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
Virtual Reality is on a tear through the sporting world. New and more digitally advanced devices are being developed, modified, and enhanced more rapidly than ever before.
Serious Simulations LLC, a veteran-owned company who designs and manufacturers human motion based VR training devices for the military as well as small group simulators, decided to dive into the world of professional football.
The virtual reality headset was revealed at the NFL’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony this month in Canton, OH. The technology mounts a camera to a football helmet so fans could experience life as a quarterback by wearing the wireless helmet in a 40’x40′ playing arena.
In 2015, Serious Simulations decided it was essential to focus on reducing latency problems in regards to their VR technology. They wanted to decrease the amount of time it takes for the visual display to respond to an individual’s head movement.
In 2016, Chambers was connected with Denver Broncos GM, Ted Sundquist, who had planned to launch a Sports Virtual Training System in Colorado to create a more realistic feeling headset. While Chambers’ company worked to advance their technology, Sundquist built the simulator.
“The key to our simulator’s success is the integration of the latest technology in the marketplace,” Sundquist told the Sentinel.
Players from both the Ravens and Bears — and NFL commissioner Roger Goddell — were able to test out the revolutionary helmet in a private session before the pre-season NFL Hall of Fame game.
“It’s a great feeling that it came together…We didn’t expect to have to change so much from the military version. But it was good to see people react well to it,”Sundquist added.
The world of VR is continually changing, evolving and working to create a more realistic environment. Serious Simulations did state that they are still working to tweak and modify the technology for a more realistic experience. Additionally, they are working to decrease the helmet’s weight along with tweaking the software itself.
In the two years since he started Serious Simulations, U.S. Army veteran Chris Chambers has had to quickly adjust his business.
The 55-year-old CEO says the initial idea behind the company was to build simulators. However, the firm has since shifted gears to build simulator components, leaving the building of the actual chairs to others.
“We are trying to be agile and stay afloat by solving other simulators’ problems,” Chambers said on Monday. “You have to be flexible and do what you have to do to stay in business.”
The startup company, which employs four people directly and about eight contractors, recently landed a pair of U.S. Army contracts to build components for augmented and virtual reality systems.
The move comes as the company relies less on investors and more on paying customers.
Chambers, a retired U.S. Army officer who lives in Oviedo, said he started to do more work in simulation as his military career came to an end. He then did consultant work before starting Serious Simulations two years ago.
He said Orlando is “the nexus between academia, business and the government. I can literally walk across the street to show off my equipment.”
The contracts landed by Serious Simulations cover both components of augmented reality trainers and a system that improves the accuracy of simulated guns.”
Orlando is home to a robust simulation and defense industry, with the U.S. Army’s Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation located here.
In addition, defense giant Lockheed Martin has two locations in Orlando and the National Center for Simulation hosts an annual industry conference in Orlando.
DECEMBER 1, 2015- ORLANDO STARTUP BREAKS THROUGH ON SIMULATOR LATENCY
An Orlando simulation company says it has developed a way to soften so-called “simulator sickness,” or the motion sickness some get during extended sessions in a simulator.
Serious Simulations CEO Christopher Chambers said it’s the difference between 17 milliseconds and 17 microseconds.
That tiny amount of time represents the lag between a person’s motion and the movement of an environment in a heads-up display. Chambers says the reason behind it is simple.
“It’s a matter of duplicating human movement and the ability for it to be natural,” he said. “Our ideal is 100 percent human motion with the interface.”
But the industry is not quite there, Chambers said, although new hardware developed by Serious has set the industry on its way.
Chambers, a U.S. Army veteran who established Serious Simulations in July of 2014, said his time in the military helped shape his ideas about virtual reality.
“From my own years as an infantry officer in the U.S. Army, I knew that virtual reality training had a real future,” he said. “However, it could work only if peripheral vision and realistic human movements could be used to properly reinforce skills needed for combat.”
With industries such as law enforcement, military and commercial industry and sports training all using virtual reality to an extent, Chambers hopes the application of the new technology can be just as large.
Chambers started Serious Simulations in Orlando after moving here from Texas, in an effort to be near the area’s thriving simulation community, which is hosting the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation & Education Conference this week.
“If you’re a company in military simulation, you have to be in Orlando,” he said. “It’s the world’s headquarters for simulation and, in particular, military simulation
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