If the state of Maryland gets its way, emergency response leaders will be playing games for a long time.
Jumping on board with local businesses, Maryland has formed the Modeling, Simulation & Analysis Council to create a foundation for developing the best possible interactive training tools. Used extensively by the military, these3-D, animated or video-based interactive training games are now being tailored for hospitals, emergency responders and decision-making officials during a time of widespread emergency or natural disasters.
“I think the goal is not to be on the leading edge, but to adapt some of the local tools,” said Dennis Schraeder, director of the Governor¹s Office of Homeland Security. “We need to find a way to take this technology and apply it.”
Schraeder addressed the MMSAC in a meeting on Friday, discussing how Maryland has begun steps to train their decision-makers and emergency responders, and ways that the training could improve by working together. Also presenting was Robert Diamond, the assistant secretary of Maryland¹s Division of Business Development. Diamond focused on a map of all the simulation business in Maryland, with each represented by a red beacon and encouraged these organizations to “connect the dots.”
“It’s a sleeper industry in the state, and we have a lot of it going on,” Diamond said. “These [businesses] really feed off of each other.”
One of these businesses, Potomac-based WILL Interactive Inc., has recently received six contracts from the military. Valued at more than a collective $3 million, these contracts are for WILL to produce training videos for anything from how to operate a submarine to the career of a captain in the army. Aside from military use, WILL has also produced games for law enforcement that are used in Maryland. These interactive training games deal with combating racial profiling and hostage and suicide negotiating.
“What is amazing is there are so many simulations,” said David Versaw, chief financial officer of Will Interactive. “There are 2-D and 3-D types, there are simulated environments … live action video types as well.”
