INTRODUCTION TO A NEW TRAINING SYSTEM

In any relationship, communication is the key to success. This is especially true in conversations where the stakes are high, emotions run strong, and people have different points of view.

Communication occurs at many levels. It involves not only words, but also the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech. In addition, nonverbal behaviors like posture, body lean, body movements, gestures and gaze are crucial to conveying emotion and meaning. Being able to read and to express all of these cues is key to developing a style of communication that gets results – whether you’re a doctor trying to develop trust and rapport with a patient, or a federal agent trying to decide if your interview subject is a terrorist.

To help professionals develop communication expertise, MCI has created proprietary technology that is contained in its healthcare product, MPathic-VR^TM. The product is a computer application that puts the user into an authentic, high-stakes situation with a Virtual Human (VH) character who expresses emotions in a nuanced and highly believable way. Conversing with the VH, the user is challenged to interpret the VH’s verbal and non-verbal communication, and respond with a winning strategy. As the human and the VH converse, the software application captures user data that can be used for assessment, teaching, and certification. The goal of this product is to create a user experience that is more immersive, compelling, and effective than any current method can provide.

MCI’s training software will be provided to users via cloud computing using the Software as a Service (SaaS) model. This approach has numerous benefits for customers and the service provider, including: global availability via the internet, easy upgrades and minimal burden on customer IT departments.

MCI expects to achieve significant economies of scale over numerous future modules by amortizing development costs of the core technolgies created for its first module.