The Technical University of Twente and Thales enable companies to test new concepts in a game format.

Enschede - At at the Technical University of Enschede, the first Technology Exchange (T-Xchange) Cell in the Netherlands is opened today; a hypermodern virtual laboratory that enables companies to test new concepts for innovations in an early stage in the form of a game. The T-Xchange Cell in the Virtual Reality Lab of the Technical University of Twente looks like a paradise for fanatic computer gamers. A semicircular projection screen of several meters long, a battery of beamers and a multitude of trendy laptops at casino-type tables with a series of oversized lcd displays suspended over them. 'Gaming" is the keyword for the method innovations are conceived and developed here.
But it's not a game. The room can be hermetically sealed from the outside world to protect valuable company secrets. The network is still 'old-fashioned' cables and wires. "A wireless network is still too risky," explains project leader Eelko Kunst.
This is where companies in cooperation with technical specialists from the University can work undisturbed on innovative developments. "This is innovation of the fourth generation," says Kunst. "Project development in a virtual environment is well-known. So is simulation of processes and designs. The added ingredient here is gaming: innovative solutions can be built here in the early stage of concept development, tested and adapted. In the form of a game, participants of session, creative designers, technicians, but also executives and financers, may release all kinds of scenarios on a problem. Even before an innovative product is being developed, it becomes possible to verify if the problem has been defined well enough and if the solution meets the demand. The game can demonstrate if the innovation really meets the demand of the market. If not, you just start anew." An example of such a game makes things more concrete: one of the companies participating in the project is Vrest B.V., specialized in virtual learning environments. Their game is aimed at the demand from hospitals for a method to train medical specialists quicker and less expensive. "Technically, the sky is the limit," says Eelko Kunst. "You can make a computer simulation that indicates the pressure exerted by a surgeon in training on his scalpel. In the game, one can then wonder: "What's the advantage if we can simulate this? Can we train this skill in an other way in a virtual environment? Can it be made simpler, less expensive, more efficient?" These variations in the scenario can be shown here immediately, including the learning results and costs." "Engineers can make anything you want," adds Dick Arnold, spiritual father of the project. "But nobody is waiting for another video recorder that can be programmed 30 days in advance. Nobody wants to and nobody manages to. Here, we can give technology a context even before a design department is set to work. And we can influence this context, again and again, so that we get an increasingly accurate definition of the problem we want to solve." Arnold, Director Innovations at Thales, the company that supports the project together with Vrest and engineering office Indes, is not very positive on the general innovation policy. "Everyone talks about innovation, but it needs to be organized. That is completely different from gathering a few people in a room and starting a brainstorm session, where the loudmouths always have their way. Here we want to stimulate innovative creativity. Connect knowledge in companies to science. Visualise immediately what you conceived to avoid misunderstandings. That's serious gaming."