Virtual training is predominantly useful for teaching soldiers certain procedures. But just like in Second Life, each online character is controlled by a real person, and, just like the Army’s training centers, locals are played by real Iraqis.
“It’s not just visually what you see, but it’s also getting familiar with and comfortable with the foreign language and the foreign customs of Iraqis,” says Chris Badger, vice president of marketing at Forterra Systems in San Mateo, Calif.
Already, the company is working with several medical research institutes to develop programs for nurses. Mr. Badger also envisions the program being used to simulate virtual disasters to train emergency service workers, or to re-create rush-hour traffic to teach new taxi drivers the lay of the land.
Gore-Tex is fine and dandy, but the real argonauts out there know it still buckles under the most extreme conditions. Now, however, adventurists that happen upon a ridiculous amount of water could soon ford rivers (à la Oregon Trail, of course) without worrying about soggy socks. The technology, dubbed ion-mask, was originally crafted to "ensure soldiers' clothing remained impermeable to chemical weapons," but now shoe maker Hi-Tec has inked a deal that will being the solution to a smattering of its kicks. Reportedly, ion-mask can outperform "commercial waterproof fabrics such as Gore-Tex by more than a factor of 100," and in testing, it maintained its breathability / waterproof abilities even after 100,000 flexes. No word on when full suits will be doused in this stuff, but hopefully you'll be able to wear the same outfit to the office and the jungle here shortly.