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CNN Live Saturday

Hollywood and Military Share Imaging Technology

Aired December 15, 2001 - 15:59   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: When it comes to graphics and animation, nobody does it better than Hollywood, and the same special effects that dazzle moviegoers help the U.S. military go from virtual reality to actual, real combat. CNN's science correspondent Ann Kellan shows us how.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANN KELLAN, CNN SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT: What does this 3D military weather map have in common with the giant waves in the movie "The Perfect Storm?" Those waves and weather effects were created by SGI, formerly Silicon Graphics, the technical wizards of special effects.

GREG ESTES: The military and entertainment are the two customers that push silicon graphics the most.

KELLAN: The military and entertainment industry often share technologies, but it's their friendly competition that drives innovation.

ESTES: Sometimes one leads, and sometimes the other leads.

KELLAN: The same hardware and software the catapults riders into Disney's virtual world "Aladdin" helps teach military pilots to fly through mountains and valleys in a virtual Afghanistan.

ESTES: They're actually seeing real aerial or satellite data mapped onto this virtual reality terrain so that they have the information superiority.

KELLAN: You've seen satellite view of earth, the resolution's so good you can zoom into a town, see its buildings, even trees. But Hollywood needs a steady shot, so it develops special stabilizing software. The military benefits from that innovation. This image of a ship was shot with a high-definition video camera from a blimp 3,000 feet away. See the guy walking on the ship's deck? How about now?

JOHN BURWELL, SGI: So here we've zoomed in, you know, by a factor of 50. We've locked down the target. We've stabilized it, and we're able to see what we basically couldn't see before.

KELLAN: Computer software that created many of the effects in the movie "Pearl Harbor" is being used by the military to make exact replicas of buildings and towns. While Hollywood has the time to make its effects perfect, the military can also hurry up and create, developing 3D graphics on the fly. This replica of a Middle East town took a few hours to create from a 2D satellite image.

EDWARD WARD: What we're able to do is quickly create this for our walk throughs or fly throughs for mission planning or mission preview if they so desire.

KELLAN: Weather graphics too can be rendered in minutes.

ROBERT MACE, ANTEON CORR.: This is a tool that allows a war fighter, a commander, staff, right down to the trigger pullers to just be more aware of the environment into which they're going to fight.

KELLAN: The kind of technology that makes war drills come alive for soldiers, and just might be picked up by Hollywood too.

Ann Kellan, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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