By SARA FISHER
Staff Reporter
Perceptronics Inc. hasn’t quite turned swords into plowshares, but it is turning military simulations into computer games.
The Woodland Hills-based company, which has developed computer-based simulation systems for military training over the last 30 years, is taking aim at the civilian market through its “Intergame” product.
“We were responsible for bringing entertainment to the military,” said Gershon Weltman, chairman and CEO. “Now we can say we’re bringing military knowledge to entertainment.”
Military training simulators long have used what is called an open architecture, which means adapting to virtually every conceivable battle scenario.
Bringing open architecture to a game represents a sea change for the game industry. Players are no longer bound to choosing a pre-set character in a battle game, or type of car in a race game. Instead, the game becomes as limitless as a player’s creativity. This focus on the individual also affects how the game is played out on a virtual battlefield.
Not only does the InterGame software represent a creative use of what started as a defense technology, Perceptronics executives believe it creates a new secondary market.
“Game software makers can now create and sell individual characters for open-architecture games,” Weltman said. “This open approach to Internet games creates a whole secondary market in the entertainment industry.”
Richard Vestewig, Perceptronics’ senior vice president for software systems, said InterGame also speeds up the way the game plays out over the Internet. This should reduce the clunky feeling that currently characterizes online multi-player games.
Perceptronics is in the early stages of development for InterGame, and expects to bring it to market within the next 12 months.
Perceptronics started as a think tank in 1969, founded by UCLA engineering professors. In the ’70s, it moved into creating low-cost simulators used to train soldiers on weapon systems, and teach military personnel to practice coordinating large-scale military maneuvers. Perceptronics has sold its simulator systems to the U.S. government, as well as to Sweden, Germany, Egypt, Israel and Luxembourg. But with the defense industry reinventing itself in the post-Cold War world environment, Weltman said his company has looked to the commercial sector.
“We certainly benefited from the large military buildup in the ’80s and have continued to benefit from it, but we are shifting our emphasis to entertainment,” Weltman said. “We won’t neglect our defense side. However, we see the commercial side as having greater growth in the long run.”
To facilitate this shift, the company recently received a $250,000 grant from the California Technology Investment Partnership, a state program that matches federal technology awards. It also received $750,000 from the Department of Defense last month to help it fund its InterGame endeavors.
“Perceptronics epitomizes the point of the (California Technology Investment Partnership) program by showing how defense technology can move into other markets,” said Cliff Numark, program director at the Los Angeles Regional Technology Alliance, which helped select the recipients of the state grants.
Vestewig said the company would continue to look for new applications in the entertainment industry for what were once military-focused technologies.
Seven other Southern California tech companies received grants from the California Technology Investment Partnership. Other Los Angeles winners include Torrance companies Physical Research Inc., which makes a single-chip Global Positioning Satellite receiver, and W. Brandt Goldsworthy & Associates Inc., which is developing aluminum conductors for power lines. Palos Verdes-based World-wide Innovative Technology Corp. is developing a catalyst to reduce emissions from cars, factories and power plants.
“People say that Los Angeles is a digital desert,” Numark said. “This partnership program provides that extra boost needed to help our tech companies get to the next level.”
