BeBop Sensors & Talon Simulations Receive Funding

BeBop Sensors, a developer of haptic glove technology, and industrial gaming simulation provider Talon Simulations have received an Epic Games MegaGrant to develop an economical "Hands-on Immersive Full-Motion VR Trainer" for the Unreal Engine. The joint development will provide military and commercial aviation training entities with a full-motion simulator providing a heightened sense of realism and lasting training benefits at a significantly lower price point.

The training platform will showcase the integration of BeBop Sensors' Forte Data Gloves with Talon Simulations' A3 Full-Motion Simulator offering 2-degrees-of-motion with integrated glove haptics such as force feedback and virtual cockpit control interaction to improve immersion and training realism. The grant will allow both companies to co-develop SDKs/APIs/haptic editors for the Unreal Engine, making it easier for developers to integrate haptic gloves and motion into Virtual Reality (VR)-based training solutions. The compact units will be lightweight, easily portable, and reconfigurable with various flight and driver controllers at a price point far below traditional full-motion simulators.

"By virtualizing the cockpit in VR and using haptic gloves to interact, we allow instructors and courseware designers to economically build more aircraft/vehicle variants without additional hardware costs and switch seamlessly between variants to improve student throughput," noted Jerry Kurtze, VP of Sales & Marketing for BeBop Sensors. “At the same time, we're improving muscle memory and reducing muscle scaring by allowing them to use their hands naturally as they would in the real world – this changes the way simulator training will be delivered going forward.”

"Static flight simulators are fatiguing for students over time as they become disconnected from what their eyes are seeing in VR but not feeling in their inner ear or through the haptic responses in their hands or torso as they work controls flying the aircraft," said Brandon Naids, CEO Talon Simulations. “Working together with Unreal software developers, we can offer a robust, portable, and reliable simulator that can reduce training costs for training applications.”

For more on Epic Games MegaGrants, check out  Charles River Analytics Awarded Epic MegaGrant