Forterra Systems Successfully Completes Initial DIVAARS Integration - Brings On-Line, Virtual Reality to After Action Review Process

ORLANDO, Fla., March 21  /PRNewswire/ -- Forterra Systems, Inc. announced today that it has successfully completed integration with the US Army's Dismounted Infantry Virtual After Action Review System (DIVAARS).  The program was executed in support of University of Central Florida (UCF), Institute for Simulation and Training, and the U.S. Army Research Institute (ARI).
UCF awarded the contract to Forterra in September 2006 to integrate its Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming (MMOG) platform, know as OLIVE, with proven and effective Virtual Environment (VE) training techniques for dismounted Infantry leaders, soldiers, and units within DIVAARS.  Using OLIVE, co-located or distributed participants can operate as teams and execute training exercises in realistic immersive virtual worlds.  During the training, OLIVE sends simulation information to DIVAARS.     DIVAARS collects the information, and uses DIVAARS' analytical tools to provide, meaningful feedback to instructors and training participants.  DIVAARS' graphical and statistical after action review stimulates discussion about what happened, why it happened, and what could be improved next time.   As a result of successful integration, instructors now have an innovative capability to conduct team mission rehearsal and training exercises and ultimately result in dramatic increase in operational readiness.
Dr. Bruce Knerr, ARIs principle investigator, acknowledged the program has the potential to provide a critical capability to our soldiers.  "Having the ability to simultaneously train, evaluate and provide feed-back to soldiers at various locations in a virtual environment is a powerful tool in helping the Army prepare Soldiers for current and future missions," he said.  "OLIVE's ability to support distributed team training with the added capability of DIVAARS' feedback and analytical capabilities has the potential to enhance on- going training for current conflicts and deliver lessons learned anytime, anywhere."
Dr. Stephen Goldberg, Chief of the ARI Orlando Research Unit commented on the potential of massively multiplayer on line training.  "Distributed Multiplayer games (that have capable after action review systems) provide Soldiers an opportunity to receive effective training in environments all over the world without leaving their barracks or homes."
The UCF project manager echoed the benefits of distributed training and feedback.  "On-line, multi-player/multi-unit training in virtual world environments brings an important capability to training, for soldiers or for students from a variety of occupations," said Glenn Martin.
"Through the evolution of OLIVE from a point technology for commercial social networking to an extensible, standards based platform for Virtual Environments, Forterra has been committed to support 3rd party products and technologies to rapidly evolve the capabilities and meet specific customer requirements," said John Burwell, Forterra VP of Business Development. Forterra's OLIVE Version 1.0 will be released in April 2007.
Forterra Systems, Inc.
CONTACT:  Dave Bartlett of Forterra Systems, Inc., +1-540-907-2037