Air Force Awards PLANET LLC $100,000 to Develop Hypercosm 3D Microgames for Preventive Medicine Madison, Wisconsin - October 15, 2008: Everyone knows that by focusing on healthy lifestyle choices you can improve your fitness and cost of medical care. But what exactly are "healthy choices," and how can you explain them in a way that's more fun and less like a lecture from a doctor? One solution is to present the material in a format beloved by kids and young adults alike: video games. Fun, interactive web-based microgames can introduce topics on personal health without turning off the internet-savvy generations. They can also drill home information on accident prevention, fitness, preparedness and other preventive medicine topics without scaring away the target audience. To aid in the creation of a suite of medical microgames, PLANET LLC has been awarded a $100,000 contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory to produce an authoring tool for educational microgame creation, along with a number of games focused on military preventive medicine priorities, including environmental hazard prevention, smoking secession, healthy food choices, and responsible alcohol consumption. The company will use its Hypercosm 3D software along with Autodesk's 3ds Max to produce web-based content. "3D microgames have unique advantages," said PLANET's Chief Technical Officer Abe Megahed. "Using 3D, players can immerse themselves in a role or an environment they could normally not enter, allowing them to maximize a learning experience, especially for hazard or accident prevention." 3D simulation can also place a player in a dramatic situation, offering opportunities for compelling experiential learning. PLANET will include multiplayer capabilities as well so that social interaction and sharing of ideas and strategies will further engage the players or an instructor. "Dr. Gerald Higgins, Chief of Innovative Medical Simulation at the Simulation and Training Laboratory (SiTEL), ER One Institute, MedStar Health, will work together with PLANET LLC to provide medical oversight and simulation expertise. Dr. Higgins is a recognized leader in the field of simulation and games for health, and the former U.S. Vice President of Research and Development, Laerdal Medical Corporation and Director of the Digital Human Project for the Federation of American Scientists.
COMPANY EXPERTISE PLANET's Hypercosm software group focuses on 3D interactive content creation and tools for high fidelity simulation, training and web-based 3D visualization. Their content development team is backed with a suite of software tools, including:
ABOUT HYPERCOSM Hypercosm creates products and technologies to enable highly interactive 3D simulations for training, education and design visualization. Hypercosm's patented approach to encoding object geometry and behaviors results in low file size simulations that can be delivered over the web practically and effectively, even with low bandwidth connections. Hypercosm products and services have provided web-based interactive astronaut training, assembly instructions, familiarization training, science education aids and 3D architectural designs. For more information and to view solution demonstrations, visit us on-line at www.hypercosm.com.
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