Simulator lets driver construct own scenario

By: Dan Keegan

Date: Sunday, 28. January 2007

Atari Games Corporation's (AGC) simulation development team have just made a breakthrough in making their simulator adaptable to different kinds of instructional uses. It's now capable of being "programmed" by the instructor.

On a recent visit to AGC headquarters at Milpitas, near San Francisco, this writer watched as Norm Copperman, head of Atari's software engineering team. demonstrated the exciting capabilities of this new feature of the simulator.

Copperman set up a four-car scenario on a simulated two-lane rural highway. Sitting at the wheel of the simulator, he "drove" the first car from a parked position at the side of the "highway", along the road and over the crest of a hill. Then he ended that simulation and "saved" it - just like you'd save a document on a word processor.

Next, he drove car number two in the opposite direction on the highway, while the simulator's computers simultaneously replayed the first car's run. As Copperman, driving car number two, drove over the crest of the hill, he "met himself" (car number one) coming the other way. Now he saved car number two's run as well.

The third and fourth parts of the demonstration showed just how exciting the prospects for this simulation technology can be. Copperman starts down the track in car number three. The computer is replaying the runs of cars one and two. As he approaches the hill we see car number one (Copperman's first run) starting off from the shoulder of the road ahead. Driving car number three, Copperman pulls out to pass it. Halfway through the massing maneuver, an oncoming car (number two) appears over the crest of the hill. Copperman accelerates to complete the pass and swerves back into his lane to avoid hitting it. He loses control and spins out. This, the third run, is saved also.

Now Copperman starts another run with car number four. This time he's following car three. We see car three pull out to pass car one, then get into trouble as the oncoming car two appears over the crest of the hill. Car three swerves and loses control Driving car four, Copperman has to deal with the actions of the three other cars as they re-enact his earlier efforts.

This capability to set up situations, ranging from traffic scenarios to maneuvering exercises around cones, can be used by driving instructors to plan learning exercises for their students, says AGC simulation director Jim Flack.

It would take an instructor only about 30 minutes to learn how to do it, Flack said.

Further comments to this article have been disabled.

---

All Comments (2)

Showing 1 - 2 comments

DK,

Jim Gubbins,

---