The document presents the development of a Live, Virtual, and Constructive Training Environment (LVCTE) aimed at enhancing strategic and tactical emergency operations through immersive training using virtual reality. It discusses the integration of command and control information systems (C2IS) with virtual worlds to improve collaboration, procedures, and training capabilities in crisis management for first responders. Future work includes advancing interoperability, video streaming technologies, and evaluating new virtual world engines for more effective emergency response training.

1. LVC TRAINING ENVIRONMENT FOR STRATEGIC
AND TACTICAL EMERGENCY OPERATIONS
Laura Ardila, Israel Perez-Llopis,
Carlos Palau, Manuel Esteve
Communications Department
Universitat Politècnica de València

2. • Introduction
• Motivation and challenges
• System description
• Conclusions and future work
Contents

3. • Emergency management → training of operatives
• Use of ICT (C2IS , VR) in emergency systems
• New approach for developing training scenarios for crisis
management using virtual worlds
– Trainees learn and practice how to perform physical or procedural tasks
– Work toward collaborative animated agents
– Interoperability – MPEG-V standard
• Key features:
– Realization of joint exercises reducing costs in transportation of
personnel and equipment utilization
– Flexibility and real-time response
Introduction

4. • Traditional training simulated-based systems are
expensive and offer little flexibility
• Real training in the field of emergency management is
very expensive and complicated regarding the
harmonization of procedures between agencies
• A network-based system that integrates reality and
simulation will be relatively cheap and facilitate the
interoperability and harmonization of procedures
Introduction – Base hypotheses

5. • LVCTE → connect virtual worlds and C2IS
– LVCTE: Live, Virtual and Constructive Training Environment
– C2IS: Command and Control Information Systems
• Training in crisis management
• Standardized data formats
• Middleware in which different applications can interoperate.
• Seamless interactions among virtual and real participants
• Units deployed on the field and generated in the VW
• MPEG-V Gateway to interconnect the virtual and real world
• Train with the same tools used in a real crisis mitigation
LVCTE for Strategic and Tactical
Emergency Operations

6. • Introduction
• Motivation and challenges
• System description
• Conclusions and future work
Contents

7. • Use virtual reality to reproduce real environments and to
create immersive training exercises for human beings in
the context of crisis management
– Firemen, paramedics...
• Enhance and extend the training capabilities of
traditional virtual systems
• Reflect the reality with high fidelity
– Help managers and first responders develop actuation strategies
– Homogenize procedures based on realistic environments
Motivation and challenges (I)

8. • Enable collaboration between entities and to develop
actuation strategies
• Provide interaction and overlapping between virtual and
real worlds using MPEG-V
Interoperable training environment
• Represent accurately entities and their features and
support a variety of mechanisms, software and
communication tools
Motivation and challenges (II)

9. • Introduction
• Motivation and challenges
• System description
• Conclusions and future work
Contents

10. • MPEG-V gateway
• Live, Virtual and Constructive Training
Environment
• Human-Machine Interface
System description

11. • ISO/IEC 23005 (MPEG-V – Information
Technology – Media context and control)
• Architecture and representations to enable the
interoperability between virtual worlds
• XML schema
System description – MPEG-V
Customized data model

12. System description – Gateway

13. System description – LVCTE
• Tactical Manager Server (TMS)
• Tactical Trainer Client (TTC)
• Virtual Video Server (VVS)

14. • Gather video flows from real world sensors as well as
from the virtual clients output
• Stream, display, post operation analysis
• See the “hot-spot” → enhance training and improve
situational awareness
• Only one video flow from producer to VVW (scalability
and bandwidth consumption reduction)
System description – VVS

15. System description – HMI

16. • Introduction
• Motivation and challenges
• System description
• Conclusions and future work
Contents

17. • Successful preliminary implementations using OLIVE
• MPEG-V Gateway:
– Acts as a middleware connecting C2IS for emergency
management with virtual worlds
– Performs data streaming between real and virtual worlds
• LVCTE:
– Innovative, interoperable, flexible and scalable
– Contributes to improve the deployment of applications related to
emergency management.
Conclusions

18. • Integrate stationary sensors and UAV
• Develop virtual environments representing different
types of real environments
• Test new virtual worlds engines (e.g. OpenSim)
• Evaluate the inclusion of video streaming from real
cameras in the virtual world using MPEG-V data
definitions.
• Handling masses of people and “surprise element”
Future work

19. Thank you!
Ing. Laura Ardila
lauarsi1@upvnet.upv.es
Dr. Manuel Esteve
mesteve@dcom.upv.es