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Originally published on 04/18/2002
I had an interesting visit with Jeffrey Edson, the CEO of Quantum3D, a few weeks ago. Quantum3D makes PC-based graphics products, primarily for simulation and training. Seventy percent of the company's business is military.
Fast Facts:
Quantum3D
www.quantum3d.com |
| CEO |
Jeffrey Edson. Last job: President, visual computing, Intergraph |
| HQ |
San Jose, CA |
| Employees |
77 |
| Market |
Embedded visual computing |
| Funding |
$47M in five rounds since 1997 |
| Profitable |
Yes, in 2001 |
But the line between simulation and reality is blurring for Quantum3D. For example, the company currently provides graphics subsystems for the F/A-18 Super Hornet; the display panels in this fighter jet use nVidia graphics chips, which Quantum3D packages onto mil-spec daughterboards that go into the cockpit.
When the fighters aren't flying missions, the pilots can sit in their planes, plug them into a training system on the ground or on an aircraft carrier, and simulate missions and flight exercises. The capability of a vehicle to act as its own training simulator is part of a new military requirement for platforms to support "embedded training."
Newer planes like the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) will support simulation even when they are flying missions. Data from a variety of sources (on-board databases and feeds from navigation and command-and-control systems) will augment the pilot's visual perception of reality through a helmet-mounted display; a synthetic universe will mesh with the real one. (Quantum3D's product may end up in the JSF as well.)
Augmented reality is even happening with cars; GM recently experimented with an option on some Cadillacs where an infrared camera's view of the road ahead is projected onto the windshield.
Of course, humans have used technology to amplify perception for ages. Until recently, though, most environment amplifiers (aside from eyeglasses) displayed data, which had to be interpreted, on a separate screen. As time goes by, more information will end up presented as simulated reality, projected into our field of view -- especially in our cars. We will all become fighter pilots.
- Rafe Needleman
email: rafe-needleman@catchoday.com
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