Photo by Alex McVeigh Grant Gruetzmacher tests one of the virtual reality devices at National Defense University's Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds. The purpose of the consortium was to bring like minds together to develop an understanding of the applications of virtual reality.

National Defense University hosted the Second annual Federal Consortium on Virtual Worlds recently, and companies showed up to demonstrate their latest products. The hallways of NDU’s Marshall Hall were lined with projection screens, strange looking orbs and interactive displays designed to give passers-by a glimpse of the future.

‘‘The purpose of [the consortium] is to gather parties together to share challenges and encourage the use of virtual worlds where it makes sense,” said Paulette Robinson, the assistant dean for Teaching, Learning and Technology at NDU’s Information Resources Management College. ‘‘

The consortium was attended by more than 350 people from the government, the private sector and academia. In addition, close to 1,000 people streamed the event live online from around the world, and social networking sites like Twitter were used to keep others updated on the Web.

Representatives from six different kinds of virtual worlds attended, each with a booth or two and several interactive displays.

Active Worlds, one of the programs, allows users to access great amounts of information as they walk through a ‘‘world” on the computer.

The user might ‘‘walk” into the Africa Room, which looks like a normal, one-room building. The walls are covered in rectangles that resemble paintings, but each of these is a link containing information.

One might click on a certain icon to access all public Web cams around Africa, or another one that has up-to-the-date information about what ships are being held by pirates.

‘‘We’re trying to gather content developed by others, and consolidate it in a single ‘room,’” said Jaque Davison, who works with Active Worlds. ‘‘It’s not an analytical tool, but it enables people-oriented data mining, which is important, because we often do not have personal relationships that would allow for high-speed information flow in a crisis.”

The graphics don’t have to be the crystal-clear, ultra-realistic graphics that dominate most normal notions on virtual reality. Rather, low-res graphics combined with ease of use allow users to access the data even on low-speed internet connections such as dial-up.

‘‘The key is density,” Davison said. ‘‘We try to put a lot of information in a single frame.”

Virtual worlds can allow commanders to access a great deal of information in a short period of time, which is essential for matters where time is of the essence. By collecting many resources in easy-to-find places, there is less time wasted in the actual finding, and more time spent using the information to make the best decision.

‘‘The power of information is amplified by sharing,” Davison said. ‘‘And the potential for sharing information in virtual worlds is untapped.”