Standing in a medical tent over a soldier with a burned leg, you grab the scalpel from the table next to you. You can sense the weight of the scalpel in your hand. You can look to your right and check the soldier’s vitals. You can feel the soldier’s foot as you turn the leg to inspect it.
It all feels real until you take the headset off and remember you’re actually standing over a desk in an office, wearing gloves hooked up to a computer.
That’s the experience of a medical simulation in the haptics lab of Orlando-based Engineering & Computer Simulations Inc. In the new lab, which in June was converted from a combination of a virtual reality lab and conference room, ECS integrates its software with different cutting-edge haptic gloves. The haptics technology, which incorporates touch and motion into simulations, creates a deeply-immersive experience when combined with a virtual reality headset.
Different simulation scenarios with the gloves gives the company feedback about which simulations fit certain scenarios for clients like the U.S. Army. The Army clients who saw demonstrations in the lab were impressed with the level of detail and immersion displayed in the simulations, and it was unlike other simulations they’ve seen, said Waymon Armstrong, founder and CEO/president of ECS.
In addition, the lab gives ECS new offerings for its defense, health care and aviation clients while also strengthening the role of haptics technology in Orlando’s $6 billion modeling, simulation and training industry. The lab is funded through 2024 via a research grant from the U.S. Army’s Simulation and Training Technology Center.
ECS purchased three sets of haptics gloves from different vendors and integrated it with their own software. Now, a government agency or company that wants to test a potential use case for haptics simulations can come to ECS, said Shane Taber, ECS vice president of operations and leader of the haptics team. “We can do a quick prototype.”
The applications are not limited to the military. For instance, it can be used by ECS’s existing aviation clients for maintenance training, Armstrong said.
Plus, the company is demonstrating the technology to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. Fine motor skills need to translate into health care simulations, which make them perfect for testing the limits of the technology, Armstrong added. “If you can do medical, you can do anything.”
ECS plans to incorporate more senses into the haptics simulations, with scents being at the top of the list. That originally was planned to be deployed this year, but the prevalence of facemasks reduces the effectiveness of the scents, Taber said.
Meanwhile, the company will display the haptics developments at I/ITSEC, the annual simulation trade show set to be held at the Orange County Convention Center from Nov. 29-Dec. 3, Armstrong added.
One of the greatest effects of the technology developed at the haptics lab will be the way it improves how soldiers, doctors and others are trained, said Florida High Tech Corridor Council CEO Paul Sohl. “Tech to serve others, such as our military service members and our first responders, now that’s cool in my mind.”
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