Page 76: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (March 1999)

Training in the Virtual World (Continued, from page 30) exactly the functional adequacy which is in question, as when modeling, say, the functions (features) of the hydrodynamic environment we are using facilities absolutely different from those in nature.

The description of a virtual world in the terms of a function (feature) is sufficient for rendering credibility to this world, as the operational world image of a human being consists primarily of a set of features and functions of this world's objects.

What is the difference between bad and good training tools? Only that the simulation environment created with bad tools does not contain a full set of features and functions required for the formation of profession- ally essential skills. For example, a trainee may have perfect skills of controlling the vessel which supports spatial evolutions on 3DOF level. Would this be suffi- cient to allow him to stand at the real ship's helm? No.

And for one reason only: the virtual mediator repre- sented by the model forms a false image of the world, a false operational structure of behavior in this world, and, as a consequence, inadequate professional skills.

Another example follows of how seemingly insignif- icant details may have a considerable effect on the quality of professional decision making. The modern bridge simulators are known to contain a dynamic visualization of the environment which the navigator

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J 76 Circle 237 on Reader Service Card can observe from the bridge of the ship. In situations connected with maneuvers in congested waters or mooring, the navigator receives a considerable amount of information not only from navigation aids, but also by taking record of the characteristic features and changes of the surroundings.

Simplified visualization patterns draw no difference between the seasonal changes in the same environ- ment, so, for example, the ship is always berthed in a certain abstract season. But in the northern latitudes these operations are quite often performed in floating ice conditions, which is a vital factor for a smaller ves- sel.

For the navigator to form a decision making structure adequate to the situation, in the case in question the ice floes are required to be shown as dynamic objects with certain dynamic features, while their visual image should generate navigator's associations with a poten- tial danger.

One could give quite a few examples of when the simulation's expressive features are significant in train- ing, and there will hardly be any disputes about the the- sis that the level of losses should be minimized in the actual world - virtual world- ideal world information transmission channel.

Another matter is how to achieve this. Which techni- cal and software facilities can be offered by modern technology for generating an illusion of reality within man? It is clear that one can believe in practically everything, and the history of religion provides a good proof for it. But it is rather difficult to plant a belief in a rational human being armed with the logic of profes- sional activity and with a considerable empirical expe- rience of assimilating to the actual world. Man is inherently a carrier of reasonable criticism which is one of the principal mechanisms for retaining internal stability. This is a filter which does not allow false sig- nals to pass through. This barrier cannot be overcome by anything which is not recognizable and which is not accepted by a rational human being as a fact which has a right to exist in the actual world. The simulator devel- opers are, therefore, faced with an extremely compli- cated problem of designing, on the one hand, a world whose objects are endowed with the same behavioral properties as real world objects, performing the same functions as the actual objects, and, on the other hand, a world which would actuate in a human being the same psychological structures of behavior (including motivational), which a normal person displays in actu- al life.

To date, the problem of technological facilities for the development and building of simulators can be con- sidered to be close to its solution. Any computer cata- logue will offer long lists of various graphic boards and accelerators, acoustic support facilities, sensors and systems for processing the tactile and vasomotor infor- mation. Generations of software developers have accu- mulated gigabytes of code in the form of different libraries.

While formerly the availability of these facilities was rather limited due to their extremely high price, today this kind of technology can be afforded even by orga- nizations with a modest budget. And what becomes the determining factor, indeed, is something on the verge of technology and art, something, which via the tech- nological design makes man live several hours of his life on the navigation bridge of a virtual ship and never be sorry about it. by Alex Koukharenko, Transas Vice-president

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