The issue of firefighter safety and training is a significant national problem. There is a clear need for effective training methods/materials to augment existing wildfire training. Currently there is a lack of effective Internet training materials for wildland firefighters. Agency training focus is not on the bulk of personnel, but on the leaders. Associated risks to firefighting personnel continue at high levels due to increasing occurrence and severity of wildfire events. The problem is compounded by the urban-interface encroachment and increasing demands on agency as well as non-agency based fire personnel. Project is an Internet based training application designed to instill situational awareness into wildland fire personnel. Through better understanding of all the elements in historical fatality scenarios, personnel will learn from mistakes made, as well as the complex interaction of topography, fire, fuels, and weather. This empowers them with improved knowledge for self-survival when necessary. By providing an immersive 4D environment firefighters will reach a higher level of understanding of past fatality events, and develop heightened personal situational awareness.Project will develop a true real-time virtual reality application using yet to be deployed technology and we will accomplish this on a wide scale basis. It will provide an immersive, fully interactive environment, with dynamically synchronized temporal chronology and environmental elements.Increases in bandwidth allow Internet delivery of immersive VR applications. OBJECTIVES: The primary technical objective of the Visual Genesis project is to create a unique and highly effective wildfire training package that uses computer simulation technique to recreate the time-based events of historical fatality fires. Hypothesis Spatial, environmental, and historical sequenced data can be widely dispersed via the Internet in a fluid, photo-realistic, and functional training device. Objectives: Identification and creation of effective 3d GIS derived Real-Time content. Emphasis on immersion and interactivity with a true virtual reality experience. Creation of seamless environment (full screen, no web page buttons or external links). Development of an unobtrusive and intuitive HUD (heads up display) within application. Implementation of contributing human and environmental factors through dynamic synchronization of historical parameters. Greater understanding of the impact of visualization on knowledge discovery and learning processes. Creation of a hybrid fire training application that promotes higher levels of situational awareness as a result of interaction with the application. Reinforce Fire Orders, Watch-Out Situations, and LCES through study of mistakes made in historical events. Develop conceptual model for the visualization of spatial-temporal data, and establish working template for expansion of modules to non- fatality fire training scenarios. Visualization effectiveness contribute to research into perceptual and cognitive aspects of human communication. APPROACH: The Visual Genesis Phase1 project will have 3 stages of evolution. Stage 1 (weeks 1-8) is organizational, planning, data gathering, and preparation of the GIS and remote-sensing imagery input products. Data gathering process consists of accessing commercial GIS and remote sensing data, data already in the public domain, and acquisition of data from government agencies involved with the investigation and research of the historical events. This information gathering phase also includes acquiring empirical non-digital factual and historical data; from fire research experts at multiple agencies. The digital spatial data products used in the project must be correctly identified, available, acquired, and then undergo preparation methods as necessary. This includes, potential geo-referencing, re-projection, merging and clipping processes, as well as strict adherence to metadata documentation standards. Finally the data will then be finalized, and the GIS/RS products will be prepared for the transition to the next software stage. Also during this period, project roles and tasks of individual team members will be finalized, with appropriate timelines established for each task. Stage 2 (weeks 9-16) are oriented around bringing the prepared spatial data into a true 3d software environment, primarily Visual Nature Studio (high end version of World Construction Set) and into Discreets 3D Studio Max. This is the most technical and labor-intensive portion for the proposed project. Careful planning must take place when re-assembling the spatial data in this software to ensure data integrity is not compromised. Real-time 3d content delivery (whether Local, LAN or Internet) can be very problematic with a wide variety of results, therefore every effort at this stage is made to determine optimal file formats, file sizes, and inherent functionality. The dynamic synchronization of temporal and environmental elements is also implemented at this time with the beginning of the code programming stage. Code formats will be XML (and variants) C++, and VB.net. Our goal to create a truly immersive virtual reality experience (not a video game) requires experimentation with ever-evolving techniques and newly released software advances that can be very time consuming. Stage 3 (weeks 17-24) is identified as the final compilation and testing stage, where all of the pieces start to come together. Decisions are made on the final file formats, authoring environment, and testing is begun at different levels of bandwidth. IE: Dial-up, Cable, DSL.Programming continues during this period with final element linking and debugging of final code. The HUD layout and appearance is finalized during this period. The prototype will be tested on fire personnel subjects at agency facilities in Boise, as well as at PC labs. Analysis of test results will follow, determinations will be made on effectiveness, and/or the need for adjustments. The technological workflow and evolution of the original data can be viewed in this linear fashion: Data>GIS>Data>3dSoftware>Programming> Data>Authoring Module > Programming >Data>Prototype>in-house Testing >Tweaks>Subject testing>Results
