Shipboard VR: from damage control to design

V irtual reality efforts in the Information Technology Division of the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) span mission planning, rehearsal, and execution; simulation-based design; and medicine. We devote much of our work to ship-based applications, presenting two such efforts in this article. One project focuses on experiments in shipboard firefighting to verify the effectiveness ofVR as a mission planning tool. The other project involves visualizing a preliminary design of a new Navy ship. Since that work did not extend into the actual design cycle, we can't quantify the results in terms of hours gained or costs saved. However, the design team and the program managers agreed that the VR visualization was worthwhile and provided a better understanding of the design.