Virtual-reality environments are becoming common training grounds for police officers and big business for the companies that build them and new technology is making those training grounds even more realistic.
Connecticut State Police recently unveiled a $195,000 pair of simulators that mimic the feel of state police cruisers and can display more than 100 scenarios. Officers can train to make safer high-speed pursuits, spot drunken drivers, reduce blind spots and spot road hazards. (Pictured is the GE's PatrolSim)
Unlike earlier systems, which looked and handled like video games, today's simulators make it hard to turn in the snow and even replicate the afternoon glare on the windshield. Plasma screens and high-speed graphic cards allow passing cars to move from the driver's-side window to the windshield view without pixillation or distortion.
Technology is so advanced, programmers at General Electric Driver Development say they have replicated the dynamics of the Pursuit Immobilization Technique — a dangerous chase maneuver in which an officer bumps a fleeing car hard enough to send it off the road, without losing control of the police cruiser.
Practicing the PIT on the street is not only risky, it is expensive. It requires a specially designed track and two cars that can be destroyed. Until recently, replicating the maneuver's many variables in a digital environment was impossible.
GE's latest simulator, which hit the market last month, incorporates vehicle-specific data, so different models of cars respond distinctively in different situations.
"Learning retention increases with a more real environment," said Dave Dolan, a spokesman for General Electric, one of three major driving simulator manufacturers. "If it feels real they are less focused on, 'That doesn't look like my street.'
"We get lumped in with Nintendo and Sega: 'Oh it's just like playing Grand Turismo.' But we're not trying to generate a score."
The results, however, can be measured.
Philadelphia police officers were involved in 826 accidents in 1998. The next year they began training recruits on a simulator by Binghamton, N.Y.-based Doron Precision Systems. Last year, there were 655 accidents — a 21 percent drop in four years — according to Cpl. Jeff Sidorski.
More than 1,000 Philadelphia officers have been trained in the simulators, and officers involved in multiple accidents are sent back for more training.
Mistakes made in the simulator can be reviewed and analyzed, then scenarios repeated. An entire academy class, even a whole department, can be placed behind the wheel in an identical situation.
SOURCE:
poconorecord.com.
