NASA Awards PLANET LLC $100,000 to Develop Hypercosm 3D Just-In-Time Simulation Platform

Madison, Wisconsin (PRWeb) January 25, 2007 -- Long-duration space missions may one day present the most demanding situations ever encountered in manned spaceflight. Success will depend on the knowledge and flexibility of the crew and the critical tools at their disposal. As NASA moves forward on their path to exploration, PLANET LLC has been awarded a $100,000 contract to develop a platform that combines artificial intelligence from Stottler Henke Associates, Inc. with PLANET's highly interactive Hypercosm 3D simulation software to create an on-demand situational training and operations support system.

The six month contract was awarded by the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The 3D platform will provide a means for Astronauts to assess necessary actions in routine and emergency situations, quickly select from a software-determined selection of simulation-based training materials or job aids, and link to information including logistics or vehicle health status to more effectively conduct tasks in a just-in-time scenario. A prototype system will be created of a 3D training environment that will guide astronauts through a critical extravehicular activity (EVA) procedure, including the warnings, cautions, and operational information without the use of trainer hardware or personnel.

"This project represents a step forward in blended use of interactive 3D for both training and operations," said Thomas Crabb, President of PLANET LLC. "Currently our interactive 3D can emulate a remote system. Once implemented, we will be able to intelligently interface with integrated vehicle health management systems to provide instant access to repair and maintenance procedures based on system status. Intelligent simulations can also be used for testing of new procedures in emergency situations. Pre-flight, they also serve as more effective ground trainers and provide an interface to simulated equipment for optimization of human interactions. These intelligent, data-interactive 3D visualizations finally close the gap between training, real-time operations, mission and system control, and remote automation control."

Company Expertise
Hypercosm focuses on 3D interactive content creation and tools for high fidelity simulation, training and portable, web-based 3D visualization. Their content development team is backed with a suite of software tools, including:
• Hypercosm Teleporter for efficiently exporting 3D models and animations from 3ds Max™ or Google SketchUp™ into Hypercosm web deployable applets, evaluation available at: http://www.hypercosm.com/download/teleporter/index.html
• Hypercosm Studio, a text-based authoring environment for scripting unlimited behaviors and user interactions into 3D content, evaluation available at: http://www.hypercosm.com/download/studio/index.html
• Hypercosm Player, a free viewer that integrates with standard web browsers for displaying Hypercosm applets, downloadable from: http://www.hypercosm.com/download/player/index.html

About Hypercosm
Hypercosm creates products and technologies to enable highly interactive 3D simulations for mobile training, education and design visualization. Hypercosm's patented approach to encoding object geometry and behaviors results in low file size simulations that can be delivered over the web practically and effectively, even with low bandwidth connections. Hypercosm products and services have provided web-based interactive astronaut training, assembly instructions, familiarization training, science education aids and 3D architectural designs. The Hypercosm Medical Group, led by Chief Medical Officer Dr. Gerry Higgins, focuses on aspects of digital medical publishing, distance learning courseware, medical procedure training and anatomical visualization. For more information and to view solution demonstrations, visit us on-line at www.hypercosm.com.

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