A virtual reality system first developed for gamers can now give ground troops a training platform that lets them run, jump and move around in virtual battle training scenarios.

The Virtuix Omni system on exhibit at I/ITSEC this week has four components:

■ The Immersive Mobility/Locomotion Platform that allows the user to move and turn within 360 degrees to rapidly fire at threats in any direction.

■ The Immersive Sensory Platform, a head-mounted display.

■ The Immersive Training Platform, a simulator weapon.

■ The Immersive Content Platform, a 3D software platform that can display scenarios from existing software, or new and mission-specific virtual environments, such as those created to give ground troops training to know a specific terrain or building.

The Omni prototype at the show is new, upgraded from the consumer version for gaming. The civilian gaming version will be launched in a month, and the military prototype is on display for the first time here.

"We took everything good about the consumer version and upgraded it to the military specifications — more rugged, deployable, can handle an austere environment, allows additional positions, allows integration with full equipment, all the things you need for military training," said Gavin West, director of business development for Virtuix.

The system was developed by Jan Goetgeluk, chief executive officer at Virtuix.

He saw a need: the gamer, or the soldier, needs to move around in the virtual environment.

"One of the biggest problems that hadn't been solved in virtual reality is how do you physically walk around in a virtual world," Goetgeluk said Tuesday. "I didn't want to sit in a chair with a headset on and push buttons on a keyboard. For that you need a treadmill, but a treadmill in 360 degrees. That did not exist yet, or at least it did exist in an affordable, compact way. That's what we developed."

In the past there have been big contraptions, he said, often in research settings, but not a compact system that's commercially available.

"This is the first of its kind," Goetgeluk said.

The Omni provides the ability to move naturally in the environment, and to feel present in it, he said.

The company is working with "multiple organizations" within the Defense Department, law enforcement and other government agencies to provide a mil-spec prototype, West said.

It can be used with any training software, as the Omni acts as a game controller. It does not require specifically designed training content.

With digital mapping you can create a 3D map and create a specific setting. "You can then take the Omni and walk around in that virtual environment,"West said.

"A commander can take his company commanders and platoon commanders and walk through a virtual rendition of the battlefield, which is light years ahead of when I was an officer and we would sit around a sand table and say 'you go left here and I'll go right.' Now you can literally walk the ground they're about to occupy. That's a huge advantage for military decision making.

Digital replicas of global hot spots can be created, such as Somalia or Nigeria, for example.

"We can have those as standing collection requirements and create digital renditions of them, and the moment we have to go in and evacuate Americans, we can step into that virtual world and start planning," West said. "We can say this is the route to the soccer stadium where we're going to land the helicopters and get the Americans out. Or here's what it looks like inside the embassy, down to the pictures that hang on the wall."

Soldiers will likely be seeing this system within the next couple of years in their training, West said. The potential for cutting costs makes sense, he said.

An individual system may cost $5,000 to $6,000, and training this way means organizations save money on ammunition, the cost of deploying troops to training, time to go to the field, cost of fuel from the motorpool and wear and tear on weapons system.

"You can reduce that down to something you can do under one roof within a centralized battalion training area, and you have now done the same evolution in individual training that went through flight simulation 10 or 15 years ago," West said. ■

Email: kcurthoys@armytimes.com.

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