U.K. Gets New Sim Software to Help Counter Terrorism

Cassidian, the defense and security division of EADS, is providing new simulation software to anti-terrorism agencies in the U.K. The company says this is the first software to incorporate behavioral traits that can show observers the reactions of game characters to varying situations.

The software also uses standard gaming technology to allow personnel using the game to understand how different situations can evolve, says Cassidian.

The software’s innovation is two-fold, with one element coming through the incorporation of "behavior trees.” These allow the software producers to easily script behaviors into the gaming environment. Behaviors of "bad guys,” such as terrorists, have been studied and recorded by security services for many years. The behavior tree is a visual map of the different behaviors that occur in different situations and under different pressures. (...)