Page 30: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (March 1999)

SIMULATION TRAINING

Precision quences, the remedy of which incurs serious financial costs, mobilizing of expensive resources and the like.

Further still, modern equipment per se costs quite a lot of money. Operation of this equipment also requires ever grow- ing expenses, and as the mastering of its use is a process stretched out in time, economic components of the training become increasingly important. It is only natural that with each new genera- tion of engineering and technology this situation should be successively aggra- vated, and as a logical limit, one could conjecture a situation whereby the next generation of engineering and technolo- gy will not be unable to come to life due to the fact that the preceding one has not

Ashiech Precision Products

An Orbflal Company 471 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95050, USA • Tel: +1 408-615-5100 • 800-922-2401 • Fax:+1 408-615-5200

Washington D.C. Tel:+1 703-476-2212 • Fax:+1 703-476-2214 • Europe, Africa & Middle East Tel:+44 1753 835 700 • Fax:+44 1753 835 710

Website www.ashtech.com • E-mail [email protected]

CopyrightO 1999 Magellan Corporation. Ashtech is a registered trademark and GPS+GLONASS is a trademark of Magellan Corporation.

Circle 243 on Reader Service Card yet become a standard of professional existence for mankind — not having been assimilated within the life span of a single human generation.

This is where virtual training environ- ments come to man's assistance. A com- puter in combination with video and audio facilities synthesizing the virtual world's laws becomes the basis of an infinite diversity of educational environ- ments — a kind of mediator between the physical world and this world's internal ideal image which is the foundation of each person's consciousness.

This virtual world is safe: any colli- sions and even disasters within this world will pass unnoticed by nature. To create it does not require any serious investment; its maintenance and modifi- cation does not involve any barriers which are hard to overcome; it is cost efficient. In a single day the instructor can let the trainee control utterly dissim- ilar vessels in widely diversified weath- er conditions in ports all around the world. Various emergencies, faults, and fires may occur on these vessels — ships may even sink leaving a sinister and lethal oil spill on the surface. Could this be afforded in the actual world? The answer is definitely NO. Must a profes- sional navigator be able to take the most adequate decision in such situation? The answer does not even require any dis- cussion.

For the virtual world, however, to become useful in training, its principal features should be isomorphic both to man's internal experience, and to the laws inherent in the physical world. It is (Continued on page 76)

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Ashtech® Precision Products. Anywhere. Anytime. 30 Maritime Reporter/Engineering News