The Javelin Technologies Blog

A new sister company of Javelin, Cinema Suite Inc. has been working on developing tools for Indie game developers and film professionals. A software extension of the game software engine, Unity3D, Cinema Director will allow game developers to create awesome, cinematic cut scenes for their games quickly and easily, as well as sequence events during game run-time.  Film professionals and hobbyists will be able to pre-visualize their movie projects utilizing Cinema Suite’s technology, leveraging the power of the Unity3D game engine.  All this can be done without the need for scripting or programming inside the Unity3D environment.

We have been in Alpha for our product, Cinema Director, for the past month, and are now moving into Beta development.  As part of our beta testing process, we are happy to announce that we are partnering with Every1Games, for a Beta testing event on June 29th!

Every1Games  is a personal and professional development service company dedicated to increasing the accessibility of creative industries to young adults (14-25 Years) with mental health disorders and autism.  They provide a 5 day game design course integrating social skills strategies in a low-anxiety environment. They also provide social events and opportunities for youth and adults with Autism and Aspergers.

The Cinema Suite Inc. team, as well as Javelin as our main sponsor, are excited to host a UX testing event here at the Javelin Oakville office.  We will be working with Every1Games to provide critical feedback and testing of our Cinema Director product.  They will get to make a short movie with our tools, have some fun, and enjoy a catered lunch.

For more information, or to register for this event, please visit the Every1Games blog here.  If you or someone you know loves games and movies, and would like to try the beta of our software, please sign up by visiting our website at www.cinema-suite.com. You can also contact us directly, at support@cinema-suite.com.

Cheers!

Dan

dan@cinema-suite.com

We are looking for game designers at all levels of experience to beta test the newest technology in videogame development.
Cinema Director allows designers to easily create cut-scenes cinematics and run-time sequences.

Recently the Javelin crew headed up to North Bay, Ontario to celebrate our partnership with Canadore College and iCAMP.  iCAMP is an acronym for Innovation Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Production.

Javelin is very excited to be providing iCAMP with SolidWorks software, 3D Printers and a state of the art 3D theatre which will prepare students at Canadore for the future and provide important resources for technology companies in the area.

Local business leaders gathered at the conference to find out more about the program Canadore College has put together and how the local community will benefit.  The Javelin Team was on hand to demonstrate solutions including SolidWorks 3D CAD software, Javelin Reality 3D theatres and 3D Printers for prototyping.

The North Bay Nugget was also there and wrote this very nice story about how Javelin Technologies and other vendors have come together to bring high tech solutions to Canadore College and iCAMP.

At Javelin we applaud Canadore College and other learning institutions that are preparing our workers of the future for highly skilled and creative jobs.  Keep up the good work.

If your school is interested in special educational prices and bundles for CAD software, 3D theatre  or 3D printers let us know and we’ll be happy to work with you to develop a solution tailored to your needs.

Happy fall! Earlier in the summer (ahhh, remember those days?) The Javelin Reality team had a chance to be interviewed by Rob Duvall of Halton Tech Today. The episode recently aired on Cogeco Cable.

Check out the eposide that we were featured in on a very, very hot summer day in Burlington and Oakville, The episode is called “3D Technology in the Corporate World”

Part 1:

Part 2:

Happy viewing!

Cheers,

Dan
email: dan@javelinreality.com
phone: 1-877-219-6757 x258

What if you could start selling your product long before it was ever built? Companies are always looking for more original ways to sell their product. The earlier they can start, the sooner they make money. Javelin Reality works with our customers’ CAD data, be it 2D or 3D, and creates 3D Dynamic, virtual experiences that can help sell and market products.

Take the Virtual Tour » yourself and visit the Exchange Online Virtual Reality Experience

Such was the case with Cooper Construction. They faced the challenge of leasing/selling their office spaces during commercial building construction. They required a tool that could help them sell products immediately, before a shovel was even in the ground for their building.

“Afghanistan was easy, this is hell,” Ann LeClair confessed to the CBC reporter as she described the worry and heartache of watching her son Travis Schouten, suffer through the nightmare that is PTSD. During Travis’s latest black out he had pinned his younger brother between two golf carts and then ended up crawling around on the ground screaming about incoming artillery fire, at a peaceful golf course in Sarnia, Ontario.

Travis doesn’t remember the incident. His way of dealing with the survivor’s guilt and numbness he feels since returning from Afghanistan is to self medicate with alcohol, which when combined with the heavy doses of prescription pills he was taking can be lethal.

What Travis is experiencing is very common among the estimated 6% of Canadian soldiers who come back from Afghanistan with Occupational Stress Injury or PTSD. Symptoms of PTSD can include reliving the traumatic experience through nightmares, flashbacks or even smells. These flashbacks can lead to sleeplessness, irritability and anger. Often the soldier ends up avoiding conversations, places and people that remind him or her of the traumatic event. If left untreated PTSD can lead to suicide. It is estimated that twice the number of US soldiers that were killed in combat in Vietnam have taken their own lives since returning home (102,000 recorded Vietnam veteran suicides).

Dr. Albert “Skip” Rizzo, a cognitive psychologist and virtual therapy developer with the Institute for Creative Technologies developed an immersive simulation technology called “Virtual Iraq/Afghanistan” to help treat US soldiers with PTSD. Under the supervision of a certified exposure therapist the program gradually reintroduces patients to elements of their traumatic experience, until the memory of that event no longer incapacitates them. Clinical trials of the program proved effective. The majority of patients who tried the virtual reality therapy had a significant reduction of their PTSD symptoms. The program has now matured from clinical trials to implementation in over fifty-five US Army bases and private practice exposure therapy clinics across the United States.

Meanwhile back in Canada, the Canadian Forces have been slow to adopt new technology and methods to treat this growing mental health issue. Exposure therapy programs such, as “Virtual Iraq/Afghanistan” have not been available to Canadian soldiers seeking help for their PTSD, until now.

Javelin Reality is excited to announce that we are working with the USC’s Institute of Creative Studies on a pilot project to create a Canadian module for the “Virtual Iraq/Afghanistan” program. The goal of the project is to create an immersive Canadian military experience that the Canadian soldiers who use the exposure therapy can relate to. We are honoured to be taking part in this ground breaking project to help support our troops.

Learn more about Javelin Reality: http://www.javelin-tech.com/main/services/demo_video_production.htm

 QR codes are popping up everywhere these days: movie posters, coffee cups, stickers. I even have one on the back of my business card (see left). When you use a smart phone scanner and you scan the (Quick Response Code) it usually takes you to a promotional website of the product you are scanning.

On a recent trip to LA I met Gerald Nacache, the CEO of 3D California at the Dassault Systemes office in Woodland Hills. Over a French espresso he showed me the difference between a QR code and an Augmented Reality marker. He had recently finished a proof of concept for Procter & Gamble using an AR Code.

On the back of the Gillette razor package he showed me there was what looked like a QR code. When he scanned the code a menu popped up giving him the option to go to a website or to an AR experience. He clicked AR and an interactive animation popped out of the QR code. See video below.

My head was spinning with the possibilities of adding this functionality to the back of my next business card. How much would it cost, I wondered, to have Obi-Wan pop out  (like he did in the first Star Wars) with a personal message for you to call Ben Sainsbury at Javelin Reality to discuss dynamic interactive training options? It would be intriguing. Which is the point of this type of advertising.

For more information about 3D California check out this website: http://www.3dcalifornia.com/

To discuss new and innovative 3D marketing strategies and 3D dynamic training solutions please contact us or contact me directly: ben.sainsbury@javelin-tech.com – 1.877.219.6757 x257.

Cheers, Ben

Recently the Javelin Reality team travelled to GDC 2012 in San Francisco. GDC stands for “Game Developer Conference”. If you think SolidWorks World is a big event, there were over 22,500 people that attended the conference.

Why was a company like Javelin Reality there? Javelin Reality provides cost effective and visual solutions for the sales, training and marketing of our customers products – We call this “3D Dynamic Training”. Another industry term for this is “Serious Video Games” or “Non-Entertainment Games”.

I like the term “3D Dynamic Training”. Think of “static training” as a medium delivered with a workbook or training manual. Or, think of it as a video showing how to operate or assemble something. With Dynamic Training, it comes to life. Touch it, feel it, operate it, make mistakes with it, see the consequences of your mistakes, train your muscle memory, train your mind, live the experience. Not only that, you can live this experience in full, stereoscopic 3D on a 3D TV or monitor with 3D glasses. Big difference huh? Now think of your products, what you design. Imagine the possibilities.

I ran across an old Kogi Indian Proverb that explains this perfectly. It goes like this:

“Tell it to me and I’ll forget it, Write it to me and I might remember, Make it live to me and I’ll never forget it.”

At GDC 2012 we learned some great things about the industry. We met some fantastic people doing some very creative, dynamic things which really got our creative juices flowing. It was a great experience.

Near the end of the week, we dropped by Crytek’s booth at the expo exhibit at the conference. If you don’t know who Crytek is, they have created some of the biggest blockbuster games you can find on the PC and now consoles (Crysis 1 and 2, and FarCry 1 and 2). What many people do not know, is they offer solutions for Dynamic Training. Their sister company – RealTime Immersion, gave a few of us a fantastic demo of just how far we can take Dynamic Training, and Serious Games. They are using this with the American Military, for training in Afghanistan. Take a look:

As always, please contact me to find out how Javelin Reality, can work on taking you from training manuals and how to videos – to a new world that your customers and employees will never forget. Come on by and we’ll show your our 3D theatre here at Javelin, and give you a great tour!

Cheers,

Dan

Dan.gamsby@javelin-tech.com – 1.877.219.6757 x258

Psst, hey you…come closer.

Don’t tell anyone, but did you know that some of the best marketing material you could possibly have to work with for your company, is in fact right under your nose?

Look down there. Down the hall. No, no, not the water cooler in the corner, the door beside it. Yes, the engineering office. There’s smoke coming out the bottom of the door…but that’s okay, that’s just all those smart guys using those big brains of theirs to create some amazing things. (Many of these amazingly smart engineering types also write a majority of the blog articles you read from Javelin – Shameless Plug)

Yes, these guys are super-smart!

Did you know all those super smart engineering folks, have some awesome 3D geometry for you to work with? With products like SolidWorks, your engineers are already creating full 3D representations of your products. Yes, they’ve been doing this for years, and have hundreds of different models for you to choose from. As a matter of fact, they could have already created photo realistic representations of your product, all ready to be used in your marketing material.

SolidWorks Goodness!

Now, let’s take it one step further. You can use all this fancy pants 3D stuff that your smarty-pants engineer folks have, and market more effectively across the web. You can totally immerse your customer in your product, whatever your product may be. Whether it be facilities design, or retail product, you can put it in your customer’s hands virtually. You can even allow your customers to collaborate together and discuss your product online, all leveraging existing engineering data.

Read More »

Lately a few of us at Javelin have been researching new, alternative ways to help customers and employees visualize their products. Many companies are utilizing virtual simulation to either demonstrate their product, or help train their customers and employees on how to use their product.

I recently was invited to Sandvik in Lively, Ontario, to take a test drive of their

Underground Training Simulator that they use to train people on how to operate their heavy mining equipment.

Tom White – Operator Trainer Underground Mobile Equipment USA/Canada for Sandvik, was my tour guide and operates the training simulator. I couldn’t have asked for a nicer guy to show me the ropes, so thank you Tom!

The simulator is housed in a large shipping crate, and is home to 3 large, rear projected screens that surround the operator. There is a large, metal platform that houses all the equipment and the operator seat, which is all motorized, and reacts and moves just as you are in the actual vehicle. Start the vehicle using the start up sequence, and you literally feel the ground shake beneath your feet as it starts to hum.

What is unique about this simulator, is that Sandvik can actually simulate up to 4 different vehicles, by interchanging the control panels that are secured to the floor, in a plug and play fashion. I had the priviledge of using the Drill, which they use to drill holes into rock faces inside of mine shafts, for controlled blasting.

Finally, when I was finished destroying the rock face, and drilling a bunch of very inaccurate, terrible holes, Tom showed me all of the results on the software, running the simulator. It was a little embarrassing, but very cool to see.

I don’t think I’ll be hired for a job in the mine anytime soon, but for a full video of my experience, please click below.

Reality is a growing industry. Customers, Prospects, students, etc. demand new and inspiring ways to interact with their designs and their products. Javelin Reality is coming in 2012. Are you ready to be innovative? Want to know more? As always, give me a call 905-815-1906 x258 or send me an email dan.gamsby@javelin-tech.com.

Dan