3D Browser - looks like Google Earth

HTML and browsers like IE have come to define what the Internet and the Web are, how data is organized, and how it is presented and navigated by the user. But this understanding of he Web is just a snapshot in its continual evolution. There have been a number of attempts to provide a 3D experience on the web (like early VRML). But most of these occurred before the technology could really support them and they emerged as a single point in the vast digital universe - a hobby shop demo of capabilities rather than a really useful tool. But in the last few years products like Google Earth and Worldwind have emerged as tools for viewing data geographically. It allows us to see the world as it has been in the form of maps, satellite images, and multiple layers of cultural information – including 3D features. Google Earth is a billboard announcing that it is time to try a 3D version of the Web again. But this time the widely available technology can support it and Google Earth begins with an integrated framework of data that already has value and can grow into a much richer space. There is a great deal of information on the web that can be organized geographically and presented via a 3D web browser like Google Earth. For people who need to understand their neighborhoods, vacation locations, combat zones, or other areas of interest it is highly inefficient to have to collect data from many disparate sources in the current web. Instead they should be able to access it geographically. It should be organized and offered up by its location. This would be a great addition, but it does not mean that all information can be organized this way. All of the entries in Wikipedia cannot be plotted on a map – e.g. Chevy Chase may mean a comedy actor, a city in Maryland, a financial corporation, or a large group of neighborhood branch banks. Half of these do not fit well on a 3D map. It seems that Google Earth or something like it needs to merge with the current browser to create a tool that allows people to see data in more forms than just flat HTML pages. Adding a 3D application to the desktop is not a good idea because it splits the data into different silos that have to be navigated independently. Instead the two views need to be interlaced together so that a web surfer sees data in the form that is most natural for it.

Simulation Products to Every Soldier in the World

As computer and network resources become more reliable within military units, it will become feasible for every soldier in the Army to have a computer and a connection from which they can access and make use of a simulation products. Delivering training services to the edge of the force will require hosting most of the computation at server sites and making it accessible through a lightweight client on the soldiers’ PC. Simulation will have to be configured as a service rather than as a product that is installed on all of these computers. The desktop client application might fall into three different categories: (1) clients that are web pages and Flash content that load in real time – like the Phosphor flash-based game, (2) clients that are relatively small but need to be installed on every computer – like Google Earth, and (3) heavy clients that are the size of a full game - like Americas Army. Delivering content to these customers will require large compute and data centers that manage dozens of servers-side applications and hundreds of scenario databases. These servers can also be connected to virtual simulators to allow the soldier desktop to interact with virtual simulators like CCTT and AVCATT.

The goal is to deliver training to every soldier in the Army when he needs it, not when it is possible for him to go to a training center. IT-based solutions work well for constructive and game-based simulations. They can connect to Live and Virtual systems for collaborative training as well.