Microsoft recently showcased version 2.0 of ESP, a virtual reality platform that aims to revolutionize the way many sectors train workers or plan and test products, at a trade conference.
The platform lets companies build in-house simulation tools for far cheaper than what has been possible in the past. Version 2.0 will be released "in a few years," says a Microsoft representative.
The current version of ESP is mostly used to simulate flight, particularly for military training.
Microsoft ESP solutions include a Northrop Grumman simulator that demonstrates the virtual landing of an F-18 Hornet, a cockpit trainer for a F-16 and the simulation of a helicopter landing on a moving ship.
But Microsoft wants ESP to grow beyond basic military applications. By making the tool user-friendly and cost-effective, they believe everyone from real estate companies to oil companies to city planners and law enforcement can make use of simulations.
The cost of an ESP license is a fraction of what boutique studios charge to make custom training simulations for companies. Training simulations of that sort can cost $500,000 and up, according to BusinessWeek.
Microsoft will soon release simulation platforms for trains, automobiles and underwater movement, according to James Governor, an industry analyst at RedMonk.
After establishing "a simulation of everything," Governor added, Microsoft can integrate its simulations with other platforms, such as Virtual Earth.
It could, in the long run, turn into a remarkably realistic simulator for the entire world, accurate down to the location of details such as roads, waterfalls and even individual trees.
How will they do this? In part, by utilizing user generated content -- input from the masses can help create a extraordinarily accurate system, Governor wrote.
"If Microsoft gets the tooling right, can establish the right programming languages and standards, makes the world hackable, doesn’t end up in a digital rights management rat-hole, and provides the right tools it could revolutionize a number of industries," Governor wrote.
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The ACE team (the team from which Flight Simulator started) is fantastic. I’ve had the privilege of meeting and working with many of the talented individuals in the team, and we have been supporting and developing add-ons to the Flight Simulation franchise for years, thanks to the open platform architecture.
Our Garmin GNS WAAS simulation ( http://www.reality-xp.com/professional/garmin-gns-waas/index.html ) running on Microsoft ESP proves ESP is going in the right move toward using serious games as training tools.
Microsoft ESP is a great challenge and a great opportunity for the simulation market, and Microsoft ACE/ESP team is delivering on this!
It's been canc'd.
This should be no suprise to anyone who really understood the market this product was attempting to penetrate. The ESP developers never "got it", when it came to breaking into the Military Training & Simulation market. On the last day of I/ITSEC 2008, there was an odd aura surrounding the Microsoft booth - it was like they didn't even want to bother with interacting with potential customers anymore... but they did it in a pompous manner, like "these people just don't get it"... well, the fact is that ESP developers "didn't get it" - they wanted us to throw out all our existing tools and knowledge, and start fresh with an unproven product line (and from the same company that brought us Fahrenheit - which met a similar fate in 2000).
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