For 2020, National Training and Simulation Association (NTSA) created a new virtual event called vIITSEC that took place November 30 – December 4, 2020. The conference theme, “The Future is Now,” could not be more appropriate.
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For the first time, the 2020 Florida Simulation Summit was a fully digital event, where keynote speakers and industry experts from around the world discussed how Central Florida can harness the region’s MS&T expertise to tackle present and future challenges.
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Orlando, FL (28 July 2020) – Orlando-based Serious Simulations has engaged in three projects for General Dynamics Mission Systems (GDMS) that contribute to the U.S. Army’s Synthetic Training Environment Live (STE Live) Force on Force training initiative. Under the Army’s new program, it intends to revamp live training and fill gaps currently existing in live training using laser-based systems (aka MILES).
Of particular note, the Army awarded a contract to GDMS to provide a workable solution for short range indirect fire systems, such as the M320 Grenade Launcher, which is not exercised at all in the current MILES laser-based systems.
Serious Simulations was chosen as the provider of an M320 Grenade Launcher hardware system to enable soldiers to use their real weapons in training. Serious Simulations has accumulated much experience in this area of weapon instrumentation for training. The current project contains electronics that fit the weapon unobtrusively, and report shot events to the networked system of training entities. The GDMS architecture applies correct physics to the shot event, and adjudicates hits or misses on opposing force entities, and stimulates their feedback devices.
Serious Simulations has also won additional work for two other real weapon systems to be integrated into live force on force training.
Importantly, the new weapon instrumentation systems for real weapons also integrate with MILES, until the STE Live Force on Force program can be fully developed for all weapons. So, these new systems will provide an immediate fill to the gaps left in laser-based training systems.
Gary Hall, Chief Engineer for Disruptive Technologies at GDMS stated “We were glad to continue work we started with Serious Simulations under previous efforts, and apply it to solutions needed for the STE Live Force on Force program. The team at Serious Simulations had unique weapon instrumentation capabilities to rapidly achieve our near-term goals, as well as capabilities that will help us meet additional weapon system training gaps for the US Army.”
“Our team is grateful for the opportunity to work with a world class defense corporation to create a positive impact and improve Soldier combat training. We have been developing instrumentation packages for weapons with no playable counterparts in the MILES laser-based training suite. So, we hope that adoption products will help U.S. Army combat units conduct much more realistic and complete training”, said Christopher Chambers, CEO of Serious Simulations and retired U.S. Army officer.
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For more information media should contact –
Christopher Chambers, Serious Simulations, 407-538-1927, cchambers@serioussimulations.com
About Serious Simulations, LLC: Serious Simulations LLC, an Orlando based Veteran Owned simulation business, designs immersive training systems using custom made hardware and software components for specific skill training needs, combined with motion tracking systems, wireless communications devices, wireless display technologies and commercial game engines. It has unique approaches to integrate real devices and weapons into simulators. It produces wireless video technology and wireless head/helmet mounted displays (HMDs) with very high resolutions and wide fields of view. Serious Simulations’ professional grade VR training systems center on military, police, emergency responders, and professional grade sports and entertainment experiences. For more information, visit our web site at www.serioussimulations.com . Inquiries: info@serioussimulations.com.
About General Dynamics Mission Systems: General Dynamics Mission Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), provides mission critical solutions to those who lead, serve and protect the world we live in. We are a technology integrator and original equipment manufacturer with deep domain expertise in ground, sea, air, space and cyberspace. Headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, General Dynamics Mission Systems employs more than 13,000 people worldwide. For more information about General Dynamics Mission Systems’ broad portfolio of capabilities, visit gdmissionsystems.com and follow @GDMS on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Orlando, FL (31 March, 2020) – Orlando-based Serious Simulations has innovated another big industry first – the introduction of a highly accurate machine gun tracker for use in Virtual Reality (VR) or Augmented Reality (AR) training simulations, and has applicability to various combat operations.
The device, branded as Accutrack™, affixes easily to standard military machine gun mounts to enable incredibly accurate tracking of the weapon’s orientation, to less than 1/100th of a degree. Amazingly different from other tracking devices, the device introduces zero drift issues which are common in other VR and AR devices. (Drift is a condition where the physical device gets out of synchronization with the virtual device and introduces negative training, or causes simulations to be halted and recalibrated.)
Serious Simulations’ machine gun tracker is already utilized throughout the entire fleet of the U.S. Army’s Virtual Clearance Training Suites, which train Combat Engineer soldiers for engagements with the enemy in Engineer vehicle operations. The award of a U.S. patent solidifies its novel approach for high accuracy tracking of crew served weapons in training and operations.
“We developed this device initially to solve an inherent problem with machine gun training systems in that they suffered from Virtual Drift. Our devices are impossible to induce drift. We realized that the tracking device had many more purposes than VR and AR training, and could be used to remotely control and memorize targets for machine guns in fixed emplacements during combat,” commented Chris Chambers, retired Army officer and CEO of Serious Simulations.
The Accutrack™ device not only tracks weapons with extremely fine measurements, with Zero drift possible, but it does so as an external attachment to a standard weapon mount. In addition, the device enables the mount to operate normally, even enabling weapon change-outs with no impact.
The company plans to offer its machine gun simulator to other training programs and to combat mounts for remotely controlling machine guns and other crew served weapons.
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For more information media should contact –
Christopher Chambers, Serious Simulations, 407-538-1927, cchambers@serioussimulations.com
About Serious Simulations, LLC: Serious Simulations LLC, an Orlando based Veteran Owned simulation business, designs immersive training systems using custom made hardware and software components for specific skill training needs, combined with motion tracking systems, wireless communications devices, wireless display technologies and commercial game engines. It produces wireless video technology and wireless head/helmet mounted displays (HMDs) with very high resolutions and wide fields of view. The industry-leading wireless HMDs, and wireless VR add-ons, are available separately or as components of Serious Simulations’ professional grade VR training systems for military, police, emergency responders, and professional grade entertainment experiences. The company is a partner in the Open Source Virtual Reality (OSVR) network. For more information, visit our web site at www.serioussimulations.com . Inquiries: info@serioussimulations.com.
Orlando, FL (1 Dec 2019) – Orlando-based Serious Simulations has innovated another industry first – a consolidated electrical power platform for small arms. The U.S. patent office recognized the innovative hardware as a novel approach for consolidating power provision, power management, and power protection on the ever growing number of electronic devices on military, law enforcement, and civilian firearms.
“We undertook the challenge of unifying and rationalizing power provision on small arms because we were experimenting with multiple electronics on weapons for use in VR and AR training,” said Chris Chambers, CEO of Serious Simulations. “Without our approach, we were left with a variety of disparate batteries, whose weights were unevenly distributed about the weapon. Our approach consolidates the battery needs into a compact and smart package that is easily affixed to standard weapons, and whose weight does not adversely affect the weight and balance of the underlying weapon.”
The hardware is a rechargeable and hot-swappable battery unit in the shape and function of a standard adjustable buttstock unit for a weapon. For all actions by the user, the power buttstock is indiscernible from the weapons’ issued butt stock. This technology is broadly applicable to all weapons with multiple electronic devices mounted on them such as laser range finder, night vision devices, chemical and biological detectors, simulation sensors, digital scopes, laser designators and more.
Branded as the PowerButtTM for the M4/AR15 Carbine this recent U.S. patent office action recognizes that Serious Simulations continues to provide unique and innovative solutions to the VR and AR training markets, as well as solving operational needs of its customers.
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For more information media should contact –
Christopher Chambers, Serious Simulations, 407-538-1927, cchambers@serioussimulations.com
About Serious Simulations, LLC: Serious Simulations LLC, an Orlando based Veteran Owned simulation business, designs immersive training systems using custom made hardware and software components for specific skill training needs, combined with motion tracking systems, wireless communications devices, wireless display technologies and commercial game engines. It produces wireless video technology and wireless head/helmet mounted displays (HMDs) with very high resolutions and wide fields of view. The industry-leading wireless HMDs, and wireless VR add-ons, are available separately or as components of Serious Simulations’ professional grade VR training systems for military, police, emergency responders, and professional grade entertainment experiences. The company is a partner in the Open Source Virtual Reality (OSVR) network. For more information, visit our web site at www.serioussimulations.com . Inquiries: info@serioussimulations.com.
Serious Simulations design and manufacturers professional grade virtual reality training equipment that prepares professional military, law enforcement, sports, emergency, commercial, and industrial personnel for successfully executing the complex—and sometimes dangerous—tasks they are likely to face in their fields.
The phrase “serious gaming” may sound like an oxymoron—or perhaps like hours spent in a video game—but in reality, serious gaming has little to do with play. Gaming entertains, but serious gaming saves lives. Serious Simulations takes its name from this descriptor, differentiating itself from games and virtual reality used for entertainment.
The company was founded in 2014 by military and simulation-software veterans—some of them, like CEO Christopher Chambers, are veterans of both industries. The founders’ unique and combined experience finds its expression in the custom-made hardware and software components used in the training suites that Serious Simulations provides. If wireless-communication devices, display technologies, motion-tracking systems, and commercial game engines form the skeleton of what Serious Simulations can offer, then the muscles and ligaments are the company’s weapon skins—sensor-laden cases that snap to the outside of real or simulated weapons used in training in order to capture data about their use—and its comprehensive training programs, like the ready2train™ simulators for both groups and individuals. Whether for software or hardware, Serious Simulations’ guiding principle is “If it’s real, it’s right.”
“What you can’t see in training could kill you in combat,”
“What you can’t see in training could kill you in combat,” the company reasons. Serious Simulations was also first to create a real-time inverse kinematic plug-in for Virtual Battlespace 3 (VBS3), the software used by military organizations around the world for VR training. (Inverse kinematics is the process of recreating an object’s movements on a computer avatar from tracking the object as it performs those movements. Think of the animation process for the movie Avatar, for example, except done in real-time.) Other firsts-and-only’s for Serious Simulations include creating the world’s first Oculus DK2 VR display, enabling the first successful use of wireless VR in a major theme park, and offering the world’s only individual training simulator using 100% real-duty equipment, including real weapons, in full-motion VR simulators. Even the simulator itself is the only one of its kind in the way it allows for unhindered human movement, which is key in the “suspension of disbelief” required for a VR scenario to seem real and thus be effective.
If the future is bright for Serious Simulations, it’s because the company is doing its part to create its own sunshine. In addition to competing in the rapidly growing markets of professional training and military and law-enforcement hardware, Serious Simulations’ pioneering extends to professional sports and location-based entertainment (LBE) as well. This form of VR utilizes a large space, allowing participants to move freely, and can incorporate physical props to create a tactile element within the VR experience. LBE is part of Serious Simulations’ ready2train™ programs, and it is also the future of VR entertainment. Even those with no gaming experience can enjoy LBE; and some simulators require no unnatural or gaming-specific movement (like manipulating a joystick, for example).
An up and coming company, Serious Simulations has been awarded two internationally recognized “Good Design” awards in electronics by the Chicago Athenaeum (2017 and 2018), and was named a Top 10 Technology Innovation Company by the Orlando Business Journal for 2018.
Serious Simulations’ programs and technology put the “reality” in “virtual reality” and offers its trainees the ultimate value: knowing what to expect and the experience needed to handle it safely and effectively.
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