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Bob Stone made a cossack
VIRTALIS’S communications, training and defence specialist, Prof. Bob Stone, has just been made an Honorary Cossack for his services to international Virtual Reality (VR) and his help in bringing the technology to Russia.

The ceremony formed part of a series of celebrations leading up to the tenth anniversary of the foundation of the Novocherkassk Simulation Centre. The team from Virtalis, headed by Prof. Stone, was instrumental in introducing the then emerging technology of VR to the Cosmonaut Training Programme when they created a VR model of the Mir Space Station. In the intervening years, they have kept in touch and the exchange of ideas continues.

Prof. Stone explained: “To be following in the footsteps of former honorary Cossacks like Winston Churchill is a great honour. The ceremony was deeply impressive, with dancing, singing and speeches peppered with numerous toasts. My thanks must go to Prof. Shukshunov who proposed my honorary Cossackship.” Before Prof. Stone could be accepted as an Honorary Cossack, he was beaten with a Cossack whip, expected to drink an enormous goblet of vodka, danced with a chorus of Cossack ladies in traditional dress, wore the furs of a Cossack and swam naked in the River Don.

“It's actually quite a big river”, said Prof. Stone, “and I can’t decide whether the vodka hindered or helped. At the end of the ceremony at Starocherkassk, the old capital of the Cossack region, I was presented with a large Cossack whip and advised it was for use on my horses and my wife!”.

The Russian International Higher Education Academy of Sciences is to produce a special edition of their international publication about the event, with a technical paper from Prof. Stone detailing his Russian experiences. During his stay in Russia, Prof. Stone gave two lectures on the latest advances in VR, illustrated with recent Virtalis defence and automotive design projects. The central themes of his lectures dealt with the power and affordability of VR today, as well as the importance of human factors in advanced simulation.

The Novocherkassk Simulation Centre serves a wide variety of market sectors throughout Russia, including cosmonaut training, VR reconstruction of the country’s heritage to aid restoration programmes and simulators for train drivers and maintenance crews.

Notes
Prof Stone continues part-time at Virtalis having taken the Chair in Interactive Multimedia Systems at the University of Birmingham earlier in the year.
 
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