Rise of the Giant Simulators
Imagine an old style simulation designed to train newly hired air traffic controllers. The students gather in a large room, in the center of which is a model airport made of plywood. Different students grab toy planes and begin “flying” them around the room by holding them out at different heights and walking in circles around the airport. Students take turns playing air traffic contoller, shouting out altitude and speed instructions to the airplanes. Occasionally, a plane is ordered to land at the airport. When mistakes are made, the planes “crash,” and students start over again.
Sounds very 20th Century, doesn’t it? Hold your breath: air traffic contollers are still trained that way in 2008. But, things are starting to change as the technology for giant electronic simulators, essentially videogames played out on room-sized screens, matures.
We last discussed the technology back in November, when looking at the ship simulator used by the Texas Maritime Academy over at Texas A&M – Galveston. All manner of ships can be programmed for students to pilot into the world’s major harbors, using seven 15 foot screens and tilting floors to help provide the full pitching deck experience during virtual storms.
Now, Matthew Wald at The New York Times brings us an article on the giant air traffic control simulators used by the Federal Aviation Administration Academy in Oklahoma City.
The sophisticated video games are meant to address a serious real-world problem: Nearly two-thirds of the agency’s 15,000 air traffic controllers will no longer be working by 2017 when they reach the mandatory retirement age of 56. … As a result, the agency now must hire and train some 1,700 controllers a year for the next decade, a task the Government Accountability Office described as a major challenge. Experts say that having a high proportion of trainees and rookies in towers and radar rooms may reduce safety. To meet the challenges, the agency is turning to electronic tower simulators, which one instructor described as “a big Xbox.”
Wald reports administrators hope to shave 20-60% training time using the big video games. Six simulators run 18 hours/day training students, though Wald states the old style simulations are still used. When virtual planes crash, though, the resulting fireball lighting up the monitors makes a much more visceral visual impact.
The article concludes with an interesting summation of the videogames used to screen candidates. The games gauge how well a candidate can multitask and deal with distractions. A battery of tests are used, too, requiring mental math computation. Remember those word problems in grade school requiring you to compute the rates and times of two different cars, trains, or airplanes leaving different cities? Well, you get the picture. Finally, students “are also given a hyperactive version of Pac-Man to play in their spare time. The idea is to keep students’ skills sharp, instructors say, and hone their ability to watch several targets at a time.”
References:
Wald, M. L. (2008, October 7). For air traffic trainees, games with a serious purpose. The New York Times. [Online.] Retrieved: October 16, 2008 from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/us/08controller.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&sq=serious%20game&st=cse&scp=1
Tags: FAA, Matthew Wald, TAMU
Game Discussion, New York Times, Serious Games, Simulations, Virtual Reality | John Rice | 
October 16, 2008 8:43 pm
