MOSES Broken Tablet Newsletter Fall 2012

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
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DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

FALL EDITION / MOSES Newsletter DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
Welcome to the inaugural issue of The Broken Tablet: Military
Open Simulator Enterprise Strategy (MOSES) Newsletter - ap-
proved for public distribution and brought to you by the US
Army Research Lab’s Simulation and Training Technology Cen-
ter (STTC) in Orlando, FL.
Wehopetoprovidethisongoing,informationalnewslettertothe
greater virtual world community. Our focus is to gather, share,
and distribute content and ideas through the circulation of The
Broken Tablet to all curious participants interested in research,
brainstorming, and building out better worlds.
The editorial team of The Broken Tablet looks to explore what
happens when diverse backgrounds meet in a virtual world;
backgrounds including, but not exclusive to: military, technol-
ogy, education, government, industry, non-profit entities, and
the arts.
Sharing information, resources, designs, methodologies and/
or research that can be publicly released within the larger com-
munity of people fuels the creativity of any experienced or in-
experienced user. We see users creatively using virtual worlds
and cutting edge technology in any of our different professions,
enterprises and fields of interest that will all help feed valuable
information to this newsletter.
Don’t miss the following “Featured Sections” in this issue:
• Education
• Featured Estate Manager
• Military & Training
• Future Watch
• Community & Government
• Featured Artist & Content Creation
Now, a note to the MOSES Community: the future success of
The Broken Tablet depends on your input! We encourage you
to submit your comments, suggestions and contributions to us.
Together, we can build a supportive community and drive the
growth of the extended virtual world in which we live.
Get ready to unite with us to evaluate the ability of the Open
Simulator and to provide independent and secured access to a
virtual world.
Virtually yours,
Douglas B. Maxwell, Director, Project MOSES
Tonietta A. Walters, Editor-in-Chief
James Neville, Managing Editor
For more news, information, and articles,
please visit the
US Army RDECOM ARL HRED STTC website at:
http://www.arl.army.mil/www/default.cfm?page=31
MOSES YouTube Channel:
http://goo.gl/ufaMN
MOSES Informational Website
http://brokentablet.arl.army.mil
Email:
ARL.STTC.OPEN.SIMULATOR@US.ARMY.MIL
About Us . . . .
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3 FALL EDITION / MOSES NewsletterDISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
The MOSES Rationale
by Douglas Maxwell
The US Army Research Laboratory Simulation and
Training Technology Center (ARL STTC) conducts
research into gaming and virtual world technology for
possible application to military training needs. The
ARL STTC tests and evaluates numerous virtual world
technologies, from both industry and the open source
community, as it is widely recognized there is still no
“one size fits all” solution for all the training and educa-
tion needs of the military. Some virtual environments
excel at providing classroom focused experiences, oth-
er virtual worlds may have better terrain and weather
capabilities, still other virtual technologies may have
very high accuracy but low graphics quality. The sac-
rifices needed to support various capabilities are often
fidelity in the simulation. What is needed is a flexible
virtual training framework that allows for variable fidel-
ity depending on training objective. One of the virtual
worlds investigated was Second Life®, an online three di-
mensional virtual world designed to allow for significant
social interactivity. Content is uploaded and presented
by the users, called residents, and not created by Linden
Lab (the makers of Second Life®). This is a radical de-
parture from the traditional art and content pipelines of
competing games.
Objects in Second Life® are interoperable and capable
of being scripted to perform various behaviors. This al-
lows for computational steering and represents a major
shift from the traditional virtual training environment
creation process. These attributes also allow for subject
matter experts to directly upload work and training ma-
terial rather than be completely dependent on artists and
modelers.
Initial exploratory efforts by the US military into the Sec-
ond Life® product revealed a number of useful activities
could be accomplished, not only for training but also
modeling and simulation. For example, procedural train-
ing activities are accomplished through the creation of a
virtual representation of a working environment. This
allows participants to make mistakes safely and inexpen-
sively. Use cases include the preparation for rare or dan-
gerous events. Another useful example is the creation of
interactive situations that challenge the user and provide
feedback for knowledge training. The simple scripting
language in Second Life® allows for a non-determinant
learning environment driven by objectives, not frame-
work limitations.
Second Life® has been established as a useful platform for
educators and online learning. Linden Lab has created
a profit structure where they benefit from users adding
to their framework. However, certain drawbacks to the
platform have been exposed. Specifically, the content in
the platform is very difficult to export. Since Second Life®
makes provisions for all content to have intellectual prop-
erty rights associated, work created in group settings has
complex ownership rights, making capture and backup a
Armory on MOSES. Photo Courtesy US Army STTC. Content, Aimee Weber Studio.

challenge.
Another drawback is cost. Although it costs nothing for a
casual user to register an account and enter Second Life®,
individuals or organizations who wish to create content
need to purchase space to do so. Private space costs $1000
USD setup fee with $295 USD per month in maintenance
costs. Since Second Life is a public forum, certain security
and privacy issues arise. Educators often feel the need to
obtain this private space so that the students are protected
from exposure to the rest of the Second Life® citizens.
Military users need to be able to operate the virtual train-
ing environments on networks separate from the In-
ternet. Often times the training material is sensitive or
simulation data has a classified component. Since Linden
Lab does not currently offer a version of the Second Life®
platform for use behind a corporate or government fire-
wall, the product has limited utility.
In late 2006, Linden Lab made the surprising decision to
open the source code to their client code. Enterprising
programmers in the open source community created a
reverse engineered software server, called the Open Sim-
ulator. Open Simulator is an open source virtual world
server which can be accessed via the same viewer as Sec-
ond Life® and the developers strive to make the software
as closely compatible as possible. The Open Simulator
project is an initiative created to address issues such as
content portability, security, and cost. Using this open
source software, educators can explore the use of a sec-
ond life environment without investment, use the envi-
ronment in an enclave network environment to protect
students that may be under age and have the ability to
backup their work.
MOSES is not a product, but intended to be a best prac-
tice strategy for other organizations wishing to deploy
an Open Simulator based virtual world. The objective of
MOSES is to evaluate the Open Simulator and its ability
to provide network independent and secure access to a
virtual environment. MOSES has four main goals:
1. To meet or exceed the service and capabilities provided
by the Second Life® Enterprise product.
- Persistent virtual world
- Stable server environment with redundancy
- Voice communications
- Base content library
- Mesh based content import capability
- In-environment multimedia presentation capability
- Provide on-line graphical monitoring mechanisms to
start and stop server processes remotely
- Provide online graphical user management and setup.
2. To provide a stable and in-kind Second Life®-like client
environment.
3. To provide guidance to other organizations wishing to
replicate MOSES results.
4. To link to other organizations to expand the MOSES
grid.
MOSES was initially deployed in February of 2011 to a
limited test group of about a dozen Open Simulator ex-
pert users and it debuted to the public on March 22, 2011
at the Defense GameTech Users Conference in Orlando,
Florida. It was shown for the first time to a large public
crowd at the tutorial, “Virtual Worlds: Advanced Topics
with Second Life® - Programming & Management”. The
advanced topic was a discussion of the MOSES project
and the sane approaches to Open Simulator migration
with comparisons to both grids.
As of this writing, the MOSES has grown to almost 200
sims with over 400 registered users. The program has
grown through the contributions of a vigorous and ac-
tive community of users. In addition to the main MO-
SES grid, there are additional prototyping activities and
a “MOSES in a Box” project that allows people to experi-
ment on their own private networks.
For more information, contact STTC PublicAffairs Office:
Michelle Milliner
407-384-5227
michelle.milliner@us.army.mil
Douglas Maxwell, MSME
Science and Technology Manager
Virtual World Strategic Applications
U.S. Army Simulation & Training Technology Center (STTC)

Virtual STEM Labs
by James Neville
Dr. James McDermott is Professor in Instructional De-
sign for Online Learning at Capella University with a
distinguished career in science, industrial technology,
and education. He was a process engineer for Northrop
Grumman with material review board authority on a
number of flight systems including the B1, B2, the Space
Shuttle and the C17. He is a world class engineer with
contributions in trainer based computer simulations that
were targeted to reduce fabrication losses. He has been
working with virtual environments since 1987, including
dissertation work on virtual reality simulation interfaces
such as HMD (Head Mounted Displays) at Texas A&M
University.
Dr. McDermott joined the MOSES community in January
2012. His mission is, “To support fast simulation design
of STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math-
ematics] labs in support of the American security effort
through a solid technology base.” McDermott states, “We
are building a science lab [3-D Web] object library. It is
our view that relevant story lines can enhance student en-
gagement and retention. We are building an Artificial In-
telligence capability supporting bots modeled upon great
scientists of the past. It is our intent that students can re-
live milestone discoveries of the past with the original,
historical researchers responsible.” (Think of being at the
sides of Lavoisier, Faraday, Curie; discovering Oxygen,
Electromagnetism, Radioactivity.)
“Our progress to date involves a six table science lab
which is supported by a single instrument for each of bi-
ology, chemistry, and physics. Currently we are looking at
existing AI codes and constructing their own pathway to
achieve a convincing AI capacity.”
McDermott’s career path took him from major contribu-
tions in industry to a growing interest and dedication to
STEM education, particularly in engaging simulation for
Virtual Reality Fruit Fly Lab; Students deduce patterns of genetic inheritance using Drosophilia.
Photo courtesy James McDermott

enhanced learning. He took time out to teach five years
of advanced physics and chemistry at the high school
level, then returned to university level. McDermott now
mentors a dozen doctoral students online in Second Life®.
By creating lab instrumentation simulations in online
virtual environments, McDermott seeks to allow students
to personally experience the thrill of scientific discovery;
he seeks to allow student access to sophisticated lab in-
strumentation in virtual reality that they may never see
in real life.
McDermott has a big vision for the future: “We need to
accelerate the scientific development infrastructure for
our kids. The future of the military is going to be robot-
ics, energy, computers, and quantum communication.
Most important to all that is a scientific foundation.” Mc-
Dermott’s approaches his work with an engineering fo-
cus, “To put together tools and subsystems to achieve a
specific goal. If you can show practicality and usability,
then you can push development faster down the line. You
can push virtual worlds to the next level. In that regard,
MOSES is a leader.”
“The power of MOSES is in the people who come to it.
There are a lot of places to get the technology. But the
people who come to MOSES have a vision, a highly de-
veloped skill set, and are willing to cooperate. The com-
munication that goes on formally (e.g., at meetings) and
informally (e.g., between meetings) is priceless.”
McDermott believes in sharing work developed from the
outside into MOSES. Available on his estate, for example,
are titration machines and optics benches. The titration
machine is a tool used in analytical wet chemistry, which
analyzes chemical samples for pH. The optics bench al-
lows exploration of the dual wave/particle nature of light
using lasers, mirrors, and beam splitters.
When McDermott was in Second Life®, he heard of the
Open Simulator (OpenSim), but at that time felt no in-
terest in “starting from scratch in some other universe”.
However, with MOSES available, “it became obvious that
OpenSim has matured, providing powerful technologies
without attendant high costs. Through MOSES, I have a
much greater appreciation for OpenSim and its possibili-
ties for proliferation across multiple virtual worlds.”
McDermott concludes, “I have been impressed by the
quality of the work done by MOSES participants in the
Defense Game Tech User’s Conference and the Federal
Virtual Challenge. MOSES members are fellow contribut-
ing researchers, and I look forward to continue working
with them to engage more outside science and technol-
ogy communities and to help schools and people acceler-
ate science infrastructure development.”
Virtual Reality Optics Bench Lab; Students explore the dual
wave/particle nature of light using lasers, mirrors, and beam
splitters. Photo courtesy James McDermott

MOSES Winners of the
2012 Federal Virtual
Worlds Challenge
by Pam Broviak
Out of several entries to the Federal Virtual World Chal-
lenge 2012 submitted by members of the MOSES com-
munity, two were chosen as finalists. One of the the final-
ists was Dr. Kay McLennan, a professor of practice and
acting director at Tulane University, with her Prisoners
Dilemma Layered Simulation Prototype. The other final-
ist was Robert Daniel, president of BlueGrid Virtualiza-
tion Security, with his CyberSim Holodeck entry.
Dr. McLennan’s project, entered under the Engaged
Learning category, is a virtual simulation of the prisoners’
dilemma, a classic game often analyzed in the study of
game theory. The 3D environment in which the entry was
created allows for students to experience an actual im-
mersion into the game. Students can synchronously visit
the virtual site and enter an virtual jail cell together to
begin the game. Scripted boards facilitate the game play
prompting the students for their answers. These respons-
es are displayed in an adjacent interrogation room.
Dr. McLennan also makes use of 3D visual displays to il-
lustrate the different player scenarios available in the pris-
oners’ dilemma game. Additional resources are offered in
a nearby courtroom setting. These include slide shows,
vocabulary flashcards, and videos offering information
about game theory strategists. A self-test is also available
for students. In the jury area of the courtroom, students
are encouraged to leave or receive notecards with feed-
back and information.
The entire project was built in the MOSES grid. Visitors
to that virtual environment can find information about
the build at the following location: sttc_0037/149/224/31.
Additional resources and videos about the Prisoners’ Di-
lemma Layered Simulation Prototype can also be found
on the project’s website at:
https://sites.google.com/site/fvwc12mclennan/.
Mr. Daniel’s CyberSim Holodeck project, entered un-
der the Holodeck category of the competition, models
a Security Operations Center as an augmented virtual
cyber security analyst workspace. According to the proj-
ect website, “The CyberSim Holodeck combines virtual
reality (SecondLife and MOSES) with augmented reality
technologies (Smartphone and HTML5 viewer) to create
an analytic training environment for the next generation
cyber security analyst.” Daniel used the following equip-
ment to assist in creating the holodeck experience: micro-
phone, keyboard, Xbox Kinect, and an Emotiv headset.
One component of the CyberSim Holodeck project high-
lights VWphone, a phone system that can be used to com-
municate between grids. This network also allows a cell
phone user to call people or objects in a virtual world.
Another component of the project shows how a user
can manipulate virtual objects with the use of an Emo-
tiv headset. Daniel demonstrated how this worked dur-
ing a presentation at the Federal Consortium for Virtual
Prisoner’s Dilemma. Photo Courtesy Dr. Kay Mclennan

Worlds Conference in May 2012. During his talk, he wore
a headset and mapped his emotions into a virtual world
to move bars up and down on a virtual object strapped
to his avatar’s back. As his stress or excitement level in-
creased, the bars would go up. They would then return to
a lower level as he relaxed.
CyperSim Holodeck Project, Photo Courtesy of Robert Daniel
More information about Mr. Daniel’s CyberSim Holo-
deck is available on the project website at:
http://cybersim.net/Holodeck/Holodeck.php
or in the MOSES grid at the following location:
sttc_0037/149/224/31.

2013 USArmyARL
STTC Federal Virtual
Challenge
by ToniettaA. Walters
The Federal Virtual Challenge (FVC) is an open, global
Challenge to the world led by the U.S Army Research
Laboratory’s Simulation and Training Technology Cen-
ter for the best implementations of chosen focus areas as
demonstrated in/or with a virtual environment. Winners
receive recognition, travel and a monetary award. This
annual Challenge event, previously known as the Fed-
eral Virtual World Challenge (FVWC), is conducted to
explore innovative and interactive solutions in virtual
environments. Tami Griffith, Project Manager for En-
hanced Dynamic Geosocial Environment (EDGE), is the
initiator and lead of the FVC. She visited MOSES during
office hours on August 24th, 2012 to share information
about the Challenge, the following is a summary of her
presentation.
The intent of the FVC is to reach out to the real innova-
tors in virtual environments and have them demonstrate
how they might solve some of the tough problems we, in
the government, are struggling with. Winners receive rec-
ognition, travel and cold-hard cash.
The reason we changed the name of the challenge from
the FVWC to the FVC, was to be more inclusive of various
environments. We have space available in Second Life®
and in MOSES on a first come, first serve basis. Making
these spaces is meant to be supportive, not prescriptive.
You can use whatever environment you choose. In the
past we have received entries in Second Life®, OpenSim,
Unity, VBS2, PC’s, iPad’s and even Smart Phones.
Every year we ask the military folk what tough problems
they are struggling with; then we ask industry what they
see as hot topics. The challenge’s focus areas are in the
overlap area between the two. So this year’s focus areas
are a demonstration of how to train Critical Thinking/
Adaptability in virtual environments and how to ‘seam-
lessly’ do locomotion in a virtual environment. The lo-
comotion topic is focused on low-cost interface tools; for
example, less than $600 per user. One aspect of the Criti-
cal Thinking/Adaptability focus area is how you measure
the trainee’s progress; i.e., how do you know that they de-
veloped critical thinking or adaptability skills as a result
of the training.
It is important to note that entries are not white papers or
concepts, but demonstrations. Evaluators should be able
to enter a virtual environment and experience the criti-
cal thinking/adaptability training. Also, we will replicate
the interface entries in our lab to evaluate the locomotion
focus area.
Tami Griffith presents FVC to MOSES participants. Photo Courtesy James Neville

We award the challenge at the GameTech conference in
Orlando. This year, the conference will run from 17-19
April. Awards will likely be on the 18th. Winners of the
challenge will have the opportunity to demonstrate their
entries to the attendees of GameTech and are recognized
during a lunch session that includes all attendees. There
are some good videos on the website that show last year’s
conference and demo session. Many of the conference
attendees (just under half) are government, the rest are
industry and academia. The opportunity to meet and
greet like-minded folks can be helpful in a variety of
ways. Some winners gained work opportunities and/or
some additional government contracts due to these op-
portunities.
Entering the competition is free. You submit a webpage
that describes your entry (details on the website). The
deadline for entries is December 10th, 2012. There is no
need for there to be direct military scenarios. A smart
phone app would work well, as long as you can make it
accessible to the evaluators. Keep in mind many of the
other entries will be in immersive 3D spaces, so it would
have to really bring something nice to the table to be
competitive.
More details about the Challenge’s focus areas and in-
struction for entries can be found on the FVC website:
http://fvc.army.mil. Questions not answered by the web-
site can be emailed to fvwc.sttc@us.army.mil.

MOSES inABox Video
by Dave Fliesen
http://goo.gl/ufaMN
MOSES in a Box (MIAB) was developed as a portable ver-
sion of the Project MOSES virtual environment, which is
an open source virtual world using OpenSim technology.
MOSES was developed by the U.S. Army Laboratory’s
Simulation and Training Technology Center in Orlando,
Florida to provide an open source solution that can pro-
vide virtual environments for training, simulation, and
collaboration.

MIAB Video Screenshot. Photo Located at http://vimeo.com/50647996

MOSES Community
Research Showcases
Video
by Laxton Consulting, LLC
http://goo.gl/ufaMN
The MOSES Community is a professional, online net-
working group researching the ability of OpenSimulator
platforms to provide independent, high-security, high-
performance access to three-dimensional, online, interac-
tive virtual environments. Backgrounds include military,
technology, government, education, industry, and arts.
This Research Showcases Video highlights six research
projects underway. Shown are: Air Force Research Lab;
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Lab;
Colorado Technical University; XTAL Enterprises; Nou-
menArt Center for Applied Aesthetics; Laxton Consult-
ing LLC.
MOSES Community Research Showcases Video Screenshot.
Photo Located at http://www.laxtonconsulting.com/home/demo/MOSES2_v3_720.wmv

Broken Tablet is the official newsletter of the MOSES community, approved for public distribution by ARL and
published quarterly.
Defense Game Tech User’s Conference is an annual meeting to advance awareness and use of gaming technol-
ogy for military training.
Estate Managers manage one or more regions (simulator resources) and projects in the MOSES grid.
FVC (Federal Virtual Challenge) is an open, global Challenge to the world for the best implementations as
demonstrated in/or with a virtual environment conducted to explore innovative and interactive solutions in vir-
tual environments. Winners receive recognition, travel and cash.
Firestorm is a Third Party Viewer developed for use with Second Life and OpenSim 3D environments.
MOSES (Military Open Simulator Enterprise Strategy) is a privately-hosted, OpenSim, online virtual environ-
ment with stringent security from hackers.
MOSES Community is a professional, online networking group researching the ability of OpenSimulator plat-
forms to provide independent, high-security, high-performance access to three-dimensional, online, interactive
virtual environments. Backgrounds include military, technology, government, education, industry, and the arts.
MIAB (MOSES In A Box) is a portable, publically-licensed version of the experimental Project MOSES virtual
environment which can be downloaded and installed on standalone individual or enterprise servers.
MOSES Viewer v3 is an ARL-STTC implementation of Firestorm suitable for use on the MOSES grid.
OpenSim (OpenSimulator) is an open source multi-platform, multi-user virtual environment application
server.
STTC (United States Army Simulation and Training Technology Center) provides state-of-the-art applied
research to develop simulation technologies, including MOSES.
Glossary

MOSES Broken Tablet Newsletter Fall 2012

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