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Superscape Delivers Interactive 3d For Safety Training At Ford

13 June 2000

Superscape Delivers Interactive 3d For Safety Training At Ford

    HOOK, England - Interactive 3D specialist, Superscape Inc., is developing a 
sophisticated safety training application for the Advanced Manufacturing 
Technology Development (AMTD) Center of the Ford Motor Company.  The AMTD group 
is responsible for identifying new manufacturing concepts and techniques, and 
trying them out in a carefully controlled test environment.

    As part of Ford's ongoing drive to improve safety, Superscape is
developing an Interactive 3D world that will visualise a typical Ford factory
floor, including forklift trucks.  Potential users of this new system, focuses
on plant workers who will be required to navigate around the environment and
carry out a series of activities, which will be scored with points being lost
for "unsafe" actions.

    Les Schonberg, a Computer Applications Engineer, is responsible for this
safety project at AMTD.  He has initiated the project, believing that
interactive 3D technology could provide the company with an innovative
training medium.

    Schonberg initially worked with Superscape's Professional Services Group
to develop a proof-of-concept "virtual world" of a factory floor for internal
review.  Feedback from potential users was very favorable and provided the
impetus to commission Superscape to build a more comprehensive system.

    The Interactive 3D training application, which has been developed using
Superscape's 3D immersive technology and is designed to run on any Pentium PC,
depicts a "typical" factory floor.  The user is represented by an avatar
(animated human) as a "virtual pedestrian," and with just the mouse for
navigation, is required to carry out a series of activities, such as
collecting protective clothing, visiting the washrooms and walking across the
factory floor to the drinking water fountain, all the time being aware of
hazards in the environment.  Users commence the program with a total of 100
"health" points.  Points are deducted for "unsafe" actions, which are alerted
to the user and which then have to be re-done if the user fails to correct the
action in a specific period of time.

    The new training application is due to be tested in the Dearborn and the
Wayne Assembly plants during July, 2000.

    Notes

    Superscape specializes in the provision of services based on the company's
Interactive 3D software technology.  This are used in the design and
development of innovative stand-alone and Internet based applications which
necessitate the use of, or are enriched by, 3D visualization and other
complementary rich media technologies.  Involved in Interactive 3D since 1986,
Superscape's solutions have been delivered to companies in more than thirty
countries worldwide and are used for a wide range of visualization
applications, including e-commerce, training, data and product visualization,
space planning and entertainment.  Clients include Intel, British Airways,
LEGO Media and IBM.  Superscape is quoted on the London Stock Exchange, with
headquarters in Santa Clara, California (USA) and Hook, Hampshire (UK).