Oct 19, 2013 6 min read

CARMICHAELS – The next time you think playing video games is a waste of time, you may want to consider how some gamers are applying gaming technology to practical applications.

Educators, physical therapists and even the military have found there are ways in which the games can teach, rehabilitate and strategize. And now, a local company, ISM in Carmichaels, has combined cutting-edge gaming technology with computer-aided drafting software to bring the two-dimensional world of blueprints and schematics to life.

“We are able to take a project from conception to virtual realization,” said company co-founder Bill Faddis, a Jefferson-Morgan graduate. “We were working with a church in Manassas, Va., that wanted to add on. To get funding from the congregation, we helped them virtualize it and show them that this is what it will look like.”

ISM has an office in Purcellville, Va.

The process requires a traditional hand-held game controller and a new technology called Oculus Rift. This is essentially a pair of goggles with a seven-inch screen inside where two lenses direct to the right and left eyes individually, but simultaneously, to create a virtual reality. Simply stated, when you look into the Oculus, you feel as though you are in the scenario created for you.

“If you want to know what the lighting in a room will look like at 3 p.m., we can simulate that,” said Kyle Boutchyard, a project manager for ISM. “We can animate a walk-through of rooms with music, sounds, spinning fans, opening doors and fire in the fireplace.”

The applications are endless, Faddis said.

First responders can put on the goggles, officially known as Oculus Rift, and be able to use the handheld controller to move through rooms as if they were actually inside a building during an emergency situation.

Wearing the Oculus Rift for the first time, Crystal Simmons, grant coordinator for the Greene County Department of Economic Development, was amazed.

“Oh my gosh, this is so real,” she said.

Robbie Matesic, executive director of the county’s department of economic development, said Simmons immediately saw a potential application in projects like the proposed Bailey’s Crossroads realignment.

Matesic said it is hard for some people to visualize a project when they only see it on paper. She noted that questions had arisen about whether certain aspects of the realignment would work the way they were presented.

“This would allow them to actually see it working,” she said. “There were people involved with the Bailey’s Crossroads project who were anxious. Had this been available at the meeting it would have given them the opportunity to see the completed project and be comfortable with it. What ISM has created changes your comfort level in an instant.”

Randy Litton, computer-aided drafting and design manager for ISM said right now ISM is the only company that is using the technology in this way. Litton and his team saw a way to take the Oculus Rift in this totally different direction.

Although the Oculus Rift is not available to the public yet, ISM received one for contributing to a Kick Starter campaign to bring it to market. Kick Starter campaigns are a means for the public to fund the development of new products and services.

Taking the work that ISM was already doing with 3D rendering software, the team at ISM saw the natural progression of incorporating the Oculus into it. Suddenly, it allowed clients to enter the 3D worlds ISM was creating on a two-dimensional platform to a realistic one controlled by movement. Looking through the Oculous, viewers can move through rooms, down streets, upstairs, and much more by physically walking forward or by moving the joystick component on the game controller.

“Security in a building, transportation applications and architectural applications are taking technology to a whole new level. That is when you are changing lives,” Matesic said.

With at least two area schools undergoing construction projects, Carmichaels Area and West Greene, Faddis said it is still another way the “marriage of these technologies,” as Matesic called it, could be applicable.

“We are working on a walkthrough of the school to show Carmichaels right now,” he said. Things such as temporary classroom placement, storage and movement of students during the construction project could be worked out in advance and possibly eliminate change order costs for things that were overlooked.

“We are not architects. I want to stress that. But, we can take what an architect has created to a different level,” Faddis said.

The move to virtual realization was the next logical step in what the company already offered, Boutchyard said.

ISM is an anachronism for the Latin words, Indicium, Scientia and Mentis, or more simply put Information, Science and Intellect. Inside a rather plain building in the center of Carmichaels Borough, ISM’s hand selected team of innovators, have been designing, creating and bringing working models of projects and products to clients for nine years.

Using 3D printers, ISM has the capability of giving a customer a physical manifestation of a project as well.

“A local company had a problem with a part snapping at a stress point. We fixed it so it won’t snap before they put in the expense of manufacturing it,” said Doug Ritenour, computer aided drafting and design draftsman for ISM.

Ritenour presented images of the part as it was redesigned by ISM showing its stress points and how it was mathematically tested until the problem was corrected. A sample of the part, printed as a three-dimensional plastic model, was then passed to Simmons and Matesic.

The presentation was eye-opening for Matesic who, like many others, were unaware of the company that has been talked about in hushed tones as “some sort of spy operation.”

With the company trying to dispel such myths and by letting the community-at-large know what services are available at ISM, Matesic said she was really impressed with this hidden treasure.

“It is difficult to describe what they do in words, but once you see it you get that ‘a ha’ moment. Seeing is believing,” she said. “They’ve really come up with something unique.”