IOPEX Technical TestS

The Details

Background. IOPEX LLC is establishing an Immersive Operational Experimentation (IOPEX)™ Program. The IOPEX Program creates distributed experiments in a virtual immersive environment enabled by cloud computing (Secret and Unclassified). These environments allow civilian and military operators to engage remotely, i.e., from their home stations and selected laboratory facilities, with 2D gaming or Virtual Reality (VR) clients. The program will also advance the use of Full Dive VR Units (FDVUs) that should give the IOPEX operators a multi-sensory experience almost indistinguishable from the real world. The IOPEX Program will eventually become a persistent distributed “full dive” VR environment allowing military and civilian clients to immerse themselves in crisis action scenarios and then decompose them to understand causality. Critical to success of the IOPEX Program are precursor technical tests to identify the capabilities and limitations with distributed FDVU operations.

Execution. On Wednesday 9 November 2022, IOPEX LLC (in collaboration with MACE VL, ShinyBox Interactive, Houston Community College and Microsoft Federal) will conduct a proof-of-concept technical test of two FDVUs in action. MACE VL and ShinyBox Interactive will equip two operators with FDVUs that integrate VR Headsets, Teslasuits, hand-tracking software and 360-degree treadmills. The two operators (linked through the Microsoft Azure cloud platform) will participate in short emergency management scenarios requiring multi-sensory interaction of the two distributed operators. The scenarios should disclose specific VR performance capabilities and issues associated with the haptic interface, related hand tracking; multi-sensory bodily sensation; locomotion; visualization; verbal communication, and the impact of network latency.

Observation. Technical testing events will occur at Houston Community College, West Loop Campus. West Loop Campus | Houston Community College - HCC (hccs.edu). We welcome interested parties to observe the test events in person at 10 am, 1 pm and 3 pm Central Time. Prior to each event, we will provide a brief overview presentation. After the scenario we will have time for questions. We will also provide the ability to remotely observe the 3 PM test event via a live video stream. In person and remote attendees should use the form to register their interest. We will be limiting in-person attendance to ten per time slot. All registrations are subject to review and approval. Below are the POCs for the FDVU technical test:

What is a Full Dive VR Unit (FDVU)?

To create a fully-immersive environment the FDVU engages as many senses as possible through the use of state-of-the-art VR hardware to enable haptic sensations, full-body tracking, retina scale visuals, and the ability to walk and run in the simulated virtual environment.