How Video Games Have Reshaped Military Training

Immersive Display Solutions' Immersive Desktop

Immersive Display Solutions’ up to $90K customizable desktop system is sought for mission-critical training.

You might start hearing the terms “mission critical” and “video game” in conjunction with one another—and it’s no joke.

Immersive Display Solutions is an integrator that designs and installs custom monitors for many military clients. Increasingly, according to VP of business development John Calcagno, training and implementation is approached in a way that’s quite familiar to the younger generations of military personnel.

“As the military sees it, these kids playing Xbox today are our soldiers of tomorrow,” Calcagno said. “The future of military isn’t going to be manned jets; it’s going to be unmanned. That is the future—guys flying these droids.”

Calcagno’s explanation came as he explained the demand for Immersive Display Solution’s latest product, the Immersive Desktop—a small-footprint, curved-screen, rear-projection, customizable solution that allows, for instance, pilots and first-person shooters to train in a video game reminiscent fashion.

It’s not that simple, though, and neither was the creation of the Immersive Desktop. Calcagno cited another application example, unmanned, underwater research subs, adding that the technology needed to be taken to the next level.

“The [operator] uses a flat panel LCD display—and those are his eyes. They’ve since progressed to using multiple displays, but the [Immersive Desktop] actually gives him depth of field; he can look left and right, up and down.”

Demand for a Desktop Solution

Immersive Display has been providing solutions for simulation and training for some time. Until it created the Immersive Desktop, it only provided front projected dome display screens. However, when the display needed to be under 3 meters in diameter for multi-channel solutions and under 2 meters for single-channel solutions, the front projection solution isn’t ideal.

Based on feedback from clients, Immersive Display spent two years of R&D developing a rear-projection desktop solution.

From the product data sheet:

The IDSI display solution required that there be flexibility both for resolution as well as for operational footprint in order to allow the display to meet a wide variety of needs and market requirements. All this needed to be done inside a specific screen shape and size in order to allow for the value to be optimized. The final solution for the Immersive Desktop has succeeded to provide an optimal shape and size together with a wide variety of options for resolution and operational footprint and truly does provide nearly any configuration necessary to meet a customer’s needs.

Our representatives can discuss with you your specific requirements and what Immersive Desktop configuration would be most suited to your requirements and budget, and can help you determine the best specification relative to the quantity and type of projectors, footprint options, placement and position options and how to make your content adapted to the screen shape, size and projection solution.

As an integrator, Immersive Display Solutions relies on manufacturer partners to create its solutions. The system includes up to six projectors at up to 9.5 million pixels, an acrylic dome, projection mounting, warp and blend and optional desks, installation and training.

Diving into Immersive Desktop

The display surface is critical and Immersive Display chose to work with Blue Ocean Projection Screens. “We’ve tried different screen mats in the past and they didn’t give us the properties we were looking for. There would be hot spots, for instance,” Calcagno said.

“Blue Ocean material is three layers laminated together and, after doing some research, in our opinion they’re the best out there. In most rear projection screens you can see some sort of hot spot, depending on where you stand. Their stuff is amazing because the light is spread uniformly across the screen.”

In the case of the Immersive Desktop, Calcagno pointed out, the screen material has additional responsibility because it’s bent and shaped to its spec. “It still maintains all those properties. That’s where they really excel.”

Part of the benefit of Blue Ocean Projection Screens, company president Tony Vandenberg told CI, is that it uses clear cellcast acrylic, which is a “better transmitter of light.” He says it transmits 92 percent of the light and “nothing on the planet reveals more light.” It also means the screen has “no ripples, no dimples and no aberrations.”

More from the product data sheet:

The display surface itself is a rear-projected, 0.7 gain, free-standing spherical section that has a 30” radius, a 160 degree horizontal sweep of curvature and a 60 degree vertical sweep of curvature split evenly above and below the screen equator.

Depending on the quantity of projectors used (from 3 up to 6), the resolution can range from 2800x1000 (2.8 Million pixels, 3.4 arc-minutes p er pixel and 0.75 mm per pixel) up to 5000x1900 (9.5 Million pixels, 1.9 arc-minutes per pixel and 0.42 mm per pixel). The operational footprint of the display varies by the number of projectors used, the layout of the projectors, and if fold mirrors are chosen as an option to reduce the footprint.

There is so much technology and “magic” in the Immersive Desktop that Calcagno really only sees it as a mission critical solution.

“The system you see in the video is anywhere from $30,000 to $90,000. It’s all about resolution. When military [clients] are looking at these, they need to be able to distinguish between a bird flying across the screen and a jet.”