MOSES Rationale, Virtual Labs, Virtual Worlds Challenge, Research Showcase

& TRA
ON
T IECHNOLOGY FOR THE I N I
L AON
T W
AR
TI FI

N GHTE
U
A

G R
L
IM
U
SIM

TE
MITH S

CHN OLO
Y S
RA

G
Y
L
C
U EN
UN Y
PA ITED
S TAT E S A R
TER M
SFC

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

About Us . . . .
Welcome to the inaugural issue of The Broken Tablet: Military
Open Simulator Enterprise Strategy (MOSES) Newsletter - ap-
proved for public distribution and brought to you by the US
Army Research Lab’s Simulation and Training Technology Cen-
ter (STTC) in Orlando, FL.

We hope to provide this ongoing, informational newsletter to the
greater virtual world community. Our focus is to gather, share,
and distribute content and ideas through the circulation of The
Broken Tablet to all curious participants interested in research,
brainstorming, and building out better worlds.

The editorial team of The Broken Tablet looks to explore what
happens when diverse backgrounds meet in a virtual world;
backgrounds including, but not exclusive to: military, technol-
ogy, education, government, industry, non-profit entities, and
the arts.

Sharing information, resources, designs, methodologies and/
or research that can be publicly released within the larger com-
munity of people fuels the creativity of any experienced or in-
experienced user. We see users creatively using virtual worlds
and cutting edge technology in any of our different professions,
enterprises and fields of interest that will all help feed valuable
information to this newsletter.

Don’t miss the following “Featured Sections” in this issue:
For more news, information, and articles,
please visit the • Education
US Army RDECOM ARL HRED STTC website at: • Featured Estate Manager
http://www.arl.army.mil/www/default.cfm?page=31 • Military & Training
• Future Watch
• Community & Government
MOSES YouTube Channel: • Featured Artist & Content Creation
http://goo.gl/ufaMN
Now, a note to the MOSES Community: the future success of
The Broken Tablet depends on your input! We encourage you
MOSES Informational Website
to submit your comments, suggestions and contributions to us.
http://brokentablet.arl.army.mil Together, we can build a supportive community and drive the
growth of the extended virtual world in which we live.
Email:
ARL.STTC.OPEN.SIMULATOR@US.ARMY.MIL Get ready to unite with us to evaluate the ability of the Open
Simulator and to provide independent and secured access to a
virtual world.

Virtually yours,

Douglas B. Maxwell, Director, Project MOSES
Tonietta A. Walters, Editor-in-Chief
& TRA
James Neville, Managing Editor
ON
T IECHNOLOGY FOR THE I N I
L AON
T W
AR
TI FI
N GHTE
U

A
G R
L
IM
U
SIM

TE
MITH S

CHN OLO
Y S
RA

G
Y
L

C
U EN
UN Y
PA ITED
S TAT E S A R
TER M
SFC

FALL EDITION / MOSES Newsletter DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

Armory on MOSES. Photo Courtesy US Army STTC. Content, Aimee Weber Studio.

The MOSES Rationale lows for computational steering and represents a major
shift from the traditional virtual training environment
by Douglas Maxwell creation process. These attributes also allow for subject
matter experts to directly upload work and training ma-
The US Army Research Laboratory Simulation and terial rather than be completely dependent on artists and
Training Technology Center (ARL STTC) conducts modelers.
research into gaming and virtual world technology for
possible application to military training needs. The Initial exploratory efforts by the US military into the Sec-
ARL STTC tests and evaluates numerous virtual world ond Life® product revealed a number of useful activities
technologies, from both industry and the open source could be accomplished, not only for training but also
community, as it is widely recognized there is still no modeling and simulation. For example, procedural train-
“one size fits all” solution for all the training and educa- ing activities are accomplished through the creation of a
tion needs of the military. Some virtual environments virtual representation of a working environment. This
excel at providing classroom focused experiences, oth- allows participants to make mistakes safely and inexpen-
er virtual worlds may have better terrain and weather sively. Use cases include the preparation for rare or dan-
capabilities, still other virtual technologies may have gerous events. Another useful example is the creation of
very high accuracy but low graphics quality. The sac- interactive situations that challenge the user and provide
rifices needed to support various capabilities are often feedback for knowledge training. The simple scripting
fidelity in the simulation. What is needed is a flexible language in Second Life® allows for a non-determinant
virtual training framework that allows for variable fidel- learning environment driven by objectives, not frame-
ity depending on training objective. One of the virtual work limitations.
worlds investigated was Second Life®, an online three di-
mensional virtual world designed to allow for significant Second Life® has been established as a useful platform for
social interactivity. Content is uploaded and presented educators and online learning. Linden Lab has created
by the users, called residents, and not created by Linden a profit structure where they benefit from users adding
Lab (the makers of Second Life®). This is a radical de- to their framework. However, certain drawbacks to the
parture from the traditional art and content pipelines of platform have been exposed. Specifically, the content in
competing games. the platform is very difficult to export. Since Second Life®
makes provisions for all content to have intellectual prop-
Objects in Second Life® are interoperable and capable erty rights associated, work created in group settings has
of being scripted to perform various behaviors. This al- complex ownership rights, making capture and backup a

3 DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. FALL EDITION / MOSES Newsletter

challenge. start and stop server processes remotely
- Provide online graphical user management and setup.
Another drawback is cost. Although it costs nothing for a 2. To provide a stable and in-kind Second Life®-like client
casual user to register an account and enter Second Life®, environment.
individuals or organizations who wish to create content 3. To provide guidance to other organizations wishing to
need to purchase space to do so. Private space costs $1000 replicate MOSES results.
USD setup fee with $295 USD per month in maintenance 4. To link to other organizations to expand the MOSES
costs. Since Second Life is a public forum, certain security grid.
and privacy issues arise. Educators often feel the need to
obtain this private space so that the students are protected MOSES was initially deployed in February of 2011 to a
from exposure to the rest of the Second Life® citizens. limited test group of about a dozen Open Simulator ex-
pert users and it debuted to the public on March 22, 2011
Military users need to be able to operate the virtual train- at the Defense GameTech Users Conference in Orlando,
ing environments on networks separate from the In- Florida. It was shown for the first time to a large public
ternet. Often times the training material is sensitive or crowd at the tutorial, “Virtual Worlds: Advanced Topics
simulation data has a classified component. Since Linden with Second Life® - Programming & Management”. The
Lab does not currently offer a version of the Second Life® advanced topic was a discussion of the MOSES project
platform for use behind a corporate or government fire- and the sane approaches to Open Simulator migration
wall, the product has limited utility. with comparisons to both grids.

In late 2006, Linden Lab made the surprising decision to As of this writing, the MOSES has grown to almost 200
open the source code to their client code. Enterprising sims with over 400 registered users. The program has
programmers in the open source community created a grown through the contributions of a vigorous and ac-
reverse engineered software server, called the Open Sim- tive community of users. In addition to the main MO-
ulator. Open Simulator is an open source virtual world SES grid, there are additional prototyping activities and
server which can be accessed via the same viewer as Sec- a “MOSES in a Box” project that allows people to experi-
ond Life® and the developers strive to make the software ment on their own private networks.
as closely compatible as possible. The Open Simulator
project is an initiative created to address issues such as
content portability, security, and cost. Using this open
source software, educators can explore the use of a sec-
ond life environment without investment, use the envi-
ronment in an enclave network environment to protect
students that may be under age and have the ability to
backup their work.

MOSES is not a product, but intended to be a best prac-
tice strategy for other organizations wishing to deploy
an Open Simulator based virtual world. The objective of
MOSES is to evaluate the Open Simulator and its ability
to provide network independent and secure access to a
virtual environment. MOSES has four main goals:

1. To meet or exceed the service and capabilities provided For more information, contact STTC Public Affairs Office:
by the Second Life® Enterprise product. Michelle Milliner
- Persistent virtual world 407-384-5227
- Stable server environment with redundancy michelle.milliner@us.army.mil
- Voice communications
- Base content library
Douglas Maxwell, MSME
- Mesh based content import capability Science and Technology Manager
- In-environment multimedia presentation capability Virtual World Strategic Applications
- Provide on-line graphical monitoring mechanisms to U.S. Army Simulation & Training Technology Center (STTC)


Virtual Reality Fruit Fly Lab; Students deduce patterns of genetic inheritance using Drosophilia.
Photo courtesy James McDermott

Virtual STEM Labs ematics] labs in support of the American security effort
through a solid technology base.” McDermott states, “We
by James Neville are building a science lab [3-D Web] object library. It is
our view that relevant story lines can enhance student en-
Dr. James McDermott is Professor in Instructional De- gagement and retention. We are building an Artificial In-
sign for Online Learning at Capella University with a telligence capability supporting bots modeled upon great
distinguished career in science, industrial technology, scientists of the past. It is our intent that students can re-
and education. He was a process engineer for Northrop live milestone discoveries of the past with the original,
Grumman with material review board authority on a historical researchers responsible.” (Think of being at the
number of flight systems including the B1, B2, the Space sides of Lavoisier, Faraday, Curie; discovering Oxygen,
Shuttle and the C17. He is a world class engineer with Electromagnetism, Radioactivity.)
contributions in trainer based computer simulations that
were targeted to reduce fabrication losses. He has been “Our progress to date involves a six table science lab
working with virtual environments since 1987, including which is supported by a single instrument for each of bi-
dissertation work on virtual reality simulation interfaces ology, chemistry, and physics. Currently we are looking at
such as HMD (Head Mounted Displays) at Texas A&M existing AI codes and constructing their own pathway to
University. achieve a convincing AI capacity.”

Dr. McDermott joined the MOSES community in January McDermott’s career path took him from major contribu-
2012. His mission is, “To support fast simulation design tions in industry to a growing interest and dedication to
of STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math- STEM education, particularly in engaging simulation for


enhanced learning. He took time out to teach five years
of advanced physics and chemistry at the high school
level, then returned to university level. McDermott now
mentors a dozen doctoral students online in Second Life®.

By creating lab instrumentation simulations in online
virtual environments, McDermott seeks to allow students
to personally experience the thrill of scientific discovery;
he seeks to allow student access to sophisticated lab in-
strumentation in virtual reality that they may never see
in real life.

McDermott has a big vision for the future: “We need to
accelerate the scientific development infrastructure for
our kids. The future of the military is going to be robot-
Virtual Reality Optics Bench Lab; Students explore the dual
ics, energy, computers, and quantum communication. wave/particle nature of light using lasers, mirrors, and beam
Most important to all that is a scientific foundation.” Mc- splitters. Photo courtesy James McDermott
Dermott’s approaches his work with an engineering fo-
cus, “To put together tools and subsystems to achieve a Virtual Challenge. MOSES members are fellow contribut-
specific goal. If you can show practicality and usability, ing researchers, and I look forward to continue working
then you can push development faster down the line. You with them to engage more outside science and technol-
can push virtual worlds to the next level. In that regard, ogy communities and to help schools and people acceler-
MOSES is a leader.” ate science infrastructure development.”

“The power of MOSES is in the people who come to it.
There are a lot of places to get the technology. But the
people who come to MOSES have a vision, a highly de-
veloped skill set, and are willing to cooperate. The com-
munication that goes on formally (e.g., at meetings) and
informally (e.g., between meetings) is priceless.”

McDermott believes in sharing work developed from the
outside into MOSES. Available on his estate, for example,
are titration machines and optics benches. The titration
machine is a tool used in analytical wet chemistry, which
analyzes chemical samples for pH. The optics bench al-
lows exploration of the dual wave/particle nature of light
using lasers, mirrors, and beam splitters.

When McDermott was in Second Life®, he heard of the
Open Simulator (OpenSim), but at that time felt no in-
terest in “starting from scratch in some other universe”.
However, with MOSES available, “it became obvious that
OpenSim has matured, providing powerful technologies
without attendant high costs. Through MOSES, I have a
much greater appreciation for OpenSim and its possibili-
ties for proliferation across multiple virtual worlds.”

McDermott concludes, “I have been impressed by the
quality of the work done by MOSES participants in the
Defense Game Tech User’s Conference and the Federal


Prisoner’s Dilemma. Photo Courtesy Dr. Kay Mclennan

MOSES Winners of the about game theory strategists. A self-test is also available
for students. In the jury area of the courtroom, students
2012 Federal Virtual are encouraged to leave or receive notecards with feed-

Worlds Challenge back and information.

by Pam Broviak The entire project was built in the MOSES grid. Visitors
to that virtual environment can find information about
Out of several entries to the Federal Virtual World Chal- the build at the following location: sttc_0037/149/224/31.
lenge 2012 submitted by members of the MOSES com- Additional resources and videos about the Prisoners’ Di-
munity, two were chosen as finalists. One of the the final- lemma Layered Simulation Prototype can also be found
ists was Dr. Kay McLennan, a professor of practice and on the project’s website at:
acting director at Tulane University, with her Prisoners https://sites.google.com/site/fvwc12mclennan/.
Dilemma Layered Simulation Prototype. The other final-
ist was Robert Daniel, president of BlueGrid Virtualiza- Mr. Daniel’s CyberSim Holodeck project, entered un-
tion Security, with his CyberSim Holodeck entry. der the Holodeck category of the competition, models
a Security Operations Center as an augmented virtual
Dr. McLennan’s project, entered under the Engaged cyber security analyst workspace. According to the proj-
Learning category, is a virtual simulation of the prisoners’ ect website, “The CyberSim Holodeck combines virtual
dilemma, a classic game often analyzed in the study of reality (SecondLife and MOSES) with augmented reality
game theory. The 3D environment in which the entry was technologies (Smartphone and HTML5 viewer) to create
created allows for students to experience an actual im- an analytic training environment for the next generation
mersion into the game. Students can synchronously visit cyber security analyst.” Daniel used the following equip-
the virtual site and enter an virtual jail cell together to ment to assist in creating the holodeck experience: micro-
begin the game. Scripted boards facilitate the game play phone, keyboard, Xbox Kinect, and an Emotiv headset.
prompting the students for their answers. These respons-
es are displayed in an adjacent interrogation room. One component of the CyberSim Holodeck project high-
lights VWphone, a phone system that can be used to com-
Dr. McLennan also makes use of 3D visual displays to il- municate between grids. This network also allows a cell
lustrate the different player scenarios available in the pris- phone user to call people or objects in a virtual world.
oners’ dilemma game. Additional resources are offered in Another component of the project shows how a user
a nearby courtroom setting. These include slide shows, can manipulate virtual objects with the use of an Emo-
vocabulary flashcards, and videos offering information tiv headset. Daniel demonstrated how this worked dur-
ing a presentation at the Federal Consortium for Virtual


CyperSim Holodeck Project, Photo Courtesy of Robert Daniel

Worlds Conference in May 2012. During his talk, he wore More information about Mr. Daniel’s CyberSim Holo-
a headset and mapped his emotions into a virtual world deck is available on the project website at:
to move bars up and down on a virtual object strapped ht t p : / / c y b e r s i m . n e t / Ho l o d e c k / Ho l o d e c k . p h p
to his avatar’s back. As his stress or excitement level in- or in the MOSES grid at the following location:
creased, the bars would go up. They would then return to sttc_0037/149/224/31.
a lower level as he relaxed.


Tami Griffith presents FVC to MOSES participants. Photo Courtesy James Neville

2013 US Army ARL The reason we changed the name of the challenge from
the FVWC to the FVC, was to be more inclusive of various
STTC Federal Virtual environments. We have space available in Second Life®

Challenge and in MOSES on a first come, first serve basis. Making
these spaces is meant to be supportive, not prescriptive.
by Tonietta A. Walters You can use whatever environment you choose. In the
past we have received entries in Second Life®, OpenSim,
The Federal Virtual Challenge (FVC) is an open, global Unity, VBS2, PC’s, iPad’s and even Smart Phones.
Challenge to the world led by the U.S Army Research
Laboratory’s Simulation and Training Technology Cen- Every year we ask the military folk what tough problems
ter for the best implementations of chosen focus areas as they are struggling with; then we ask industry what they
demonstrated in/or with a virtual environment. Winners see as hot topics. The challenge’s focus areas are in the
receive recognition, travel and a monetary award. This overlap area between the two. So this year’s focus areas
annual Challenge event, previously known as the Fed- are a demonstration of how to train Critical Thinking/
eral Virtual World Challenge (FVWC), is conducted to Adaptability in virtual environments and how to ‘seam-
explore innovative and interactive solutions in virtual lessly’ do locomotion in a virtual environment. The lo-
environments. Tami Griffith, Project Manager for En- comotion topic is focused on low-cost interface tools; for
hanced Dynamic Geosocial Environment (EDGE), is the example, less than $600 per user. One aspect of the Criti-
initiator and lead of the FVC. She visited MOSES during cal Thinking/Adaptability focus area is how you measure
office hours on August 24th, 2012 to share information the trainee’s progress; i.e., how do you know that they de-
about the Challenge, the following is a summary of her veloped critical thinking or adaptability skills as a result
presentation. of the training.

The intent of the FVC is to reach out to the real innova- It is important to note that entries are not white papers or
tors in virtual environments and have them demonstrate concepts, but demonstrations. Evaluators should be able
how they might solve some of the tough problems we, in to enter a virtual environment and experience the criti-
the government, are struggling with. Winners receive rec- cal thinking/adaptability training. Also, we will replicate
ognition, travel and cold-hard cash. the interface entries in our lab to evaluate the locomotion
focus area.


We award the challenge at the GameTech conference in Entering the competition is free. You submit a webpage
Orlando. This year, the conference will run from 17-19 that describes your entry (details on the website). The
April. Awards will likely be on the 18th. Winners of the deadline for entries is December 10th, 2012. There is no
challenge will have the opportunity to demonstrate their need for there to be direct military scenarios. A smart
entries to the attendees of GameTech and are recognized phone app would work well, as long as you can make it
during a lunch session that includes all attendees. There accessible to the evaluators. Keep in mind many of the
are some good videos on the website that show last year’s other entries will be in immersive 3D spaces, so it would
conference and demo session. Many of the conference have to really bring something nice to the table to be
attendees (just under half) are government, the rest are competitive.
industry and academia. The opportunity to meet and
greet like-minded folks can be helpful in a variety of More details about the Challenge’s focus areas and in-
ways. Some winners gained work opportunities and/or struction for entries can be found on the FVC website:
some additional government contracts due to these op- http://fvc.army.mil. Questions not answered by the web-
portunities. site can be emailed to fvwc.sttc@us.army.mil.


MIAB Video Screenshot. Photo Located at http://vimeo.com/50647996

MOSES in A Box Video
by Dave Fliesen

MOSES YouTube Channel:
http://goo.gl/ufaMN

MOSES in a Box (MIAB) was developed as a portable ver-
sion of the Project MOSES virtual environment, which is
an open source virtual world using OpenSim technology.
MOSES was developed by the U.S. Army Laboratory’s
Simulation and Training Technology Center in Orlando,
Florida to provide an open source solution that can pro-
vide virtual environments for training, simulation, and
collaboration.


MOSES Community Research Showcases Video Screenshot.
Photo Located at http://www.laxtonconsulting.com/home/demo/MOSES2_v3_720.wmv

MOSES Community
Research Showcases
Video
by Laxton Consulting, LLC

MOSES YouTube Channel:
http://goo.gl/ufaMN

The MOSES Community is a professional, online net-
working group researching the ability of OpenSimulator
platforms to provide independent, high-security, high-
performance access to three-dimensional, online, interac-
tive virtual environments. Backgrounds include military,
technology, government, education, industry, and arts.
This Research Showcases Video highlights six research
projects underway. Shown are: Air Force Research Lab;
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Lab;
Colorado Technical University; XTAL Enterprises; Nou-
menArt Center for Applied Aesthetics; Laxton Consult-
ing LLC.


Glossary
Broken Tablet is the official newsletter of the MOSES community, approved for public distribution by ARL and
published quarterly.

Defense Game Tech User’s Conference is an annual meeting to advance awareness and use of gaming technol-
ogy for military training.

Estate Managers manage one or more regions (simulator resources) and projects in the MOSES grid.

FVC (Federal Virtual Challenge) is an open, global Challenge to the world for the best implementations as
demonstrated in/or with a virtual environment conducted to explore innovative and interactive solutions in vir-
tual environments. Winners receive recognition, travel and cash.

Firestorm is a Third Party Viewer developed for use with Second Life and OpenSim 3D environments.

MOSES (Military Open Simulator Enterprise Strategy) is a privately-hosted, OpenSim, online virtual environ-
ment with stringent security from hackers.

MOSES Community is a professional, online networking group researching the ability of OpenSimulator plat-
forms to provide independent, high-security, high-performance access to three-dimensional, online, interactive
virtual environments. Backgrounds include military, technology, government, education, industry, and the arts.

MIAB (MOSES In A Box) is a portable, publically-licensed version of the experimental Project MOSES virtual
environment which can be downloaded and installed on standalone individual or enterprise servers.

MOSES Viewer v3 is an ARL-STTC implementation of Firestorm suitable for use on the MOSES grid.

OpenSim (OpenSimulator) is an open source multi-platform, multi-user virtual environment application
server.

STTC (United States Army Simulation and Training Technology Center) provides state-of-the-art applied
research to develop simulation technologies, including MOSES.


MOSES Rationale, Virtual Labs, Virtual Worlds Challenge, Research Showcase

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

Plus de Siterma The World In 4D

Plus de Siterma The World In 4D (20)

Dernier

Dernier (20)

MOSES Rationale, Virtual Labs, Virtual Worlds Challenge, Research Showcase