European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 29, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sunday december 29, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 15 simulator rides Fly into fantasy by Matthew l. Wald the new York times Orlando Fla. A for years airlines and the military have used flight simulators to train pilots for equipment failure or bad weather. But lately the still evolving technology has been put to use to allow novices to accompany a fighter Pilot on a strafing run Over the death Star or to ride a flying sports car Down the Throat of a tyrannosaurus Rex. In some ways this is easier to simulate than Landing a 747 in a fog bound Airport. A real life simulator after All must measure up to the operators previous experience. But the fantasy rides a though called a flight simulators by amusement Park designers a can take some poetic License. What the entertainment medium requires is a realistic feel and in that area the new rides have surpassed the Industrial simulators in some ways. There Are magnificent visual displays vast sound systems motion platforms to give the sensation of flight if not in the cerebral cortex at least in the gut. The newest and biggest flight simulator is a $40 million a Aback to the future ride at Universal studios Here. It uses the same cast of characters As the three Back to the future movies and boasts that it plays to every sense except smell. Walt Disney world nearby runs two older models that Are slightly less ambitious but still impressive Star Tours based on the Star wars movie and body wars a simulated trip through the body on a tiny submarine like vehicle. The function May be merely entertainment but the technical Effort is substantial a level of information overload that approaches what computer designers Call Quot virtual reality a or stimulation of All the senses with artificial input. Quot Back to the future a which opened in May employs an Omni Max film projected on an 80-foot diameter screen shaped somewhat like the inside of an egg with an end Cut off. The size and curve allows the horizontal Axis to fill 270 degrees of the viewers vision in other words not Only the front like a television set but everything within easy sight even if the rider swivels his head. The difference Between this image and the one on a to screen is like the difference Between listening to a symphony orchestra through the earplug of an am radio and sitting in a concert Hall. The negatives on the film itself Are triple the size of the largest format now in use in movie Heaters. Conventional movie film is measured in Millimetres for the Width of each Frame and perforations a count of the holes along the Side of the Frame by which the film is pulled along. Quot the largest conventional film uses 70 Millimetres and five perforations. But the Omni Max film is horizontal. 70mm High and 15 perforations wide. The result is a negative with 10 times As much information As a regular film negative according to Douglas Trumbull the director. That is a lot More information than comes across on Many commercial simulators. Richard s. Bray a recently retired Developer of flight simulators at the Nasa Ames research Center in Moffett Field calif., said commercial Airliner simulators show the Pilot Only what would be seen from the cockpit Windshield and one Side window. Simulators for fighter pilots sometimes show the entire sphere around the plane he said but because these Are computer generated and the computer can the Back to the future rid offers an artificial reality a very personal reality ,. A Terry Winick not create detailed images As fast As the Pilot can move they present limited information. A most of them arc aimed at air to air combat so they done to have to put much in scene but the visible horizon maybe some Clouds and then the target aircraft a he said. The a Aback to the future ride a $16 million Effort lasts Only four minutes but the body says it is longer. Except for the last few seconds when the time machine returns Home with live actors and full size props it was shot entirely with miniatures representing the mythical Hill Valley calif., in 2015 and in primordial times. At the heart of the ride is the integration of sight with motion. Visitors sit in one of 12 mock  of an eight passenger Delorean sports car with the trademark Gull Wing doors but no roof. Each a a car sits on a motion platform. According to Terry Winnick the rides producer the platform can move As much As 2 feet Forward or Back right or left and can tilt front and Back left and right. It produces a Force on the rider of up tot.8 Gas. One g is the Normal Force of Gravity. Producing a Force of one addition psychiatric clinics concerned about Impact of smoking ban new York apr giving up cigarettes is Tough for the weak of will and virtually impossible for the emotional wreck. But 5,000 . Hospitals including 560 psychiatric institutions Are under orders from the nations major health care accrediting body to begin imposing smoking bans Jan. 1. The joint commission on the accreditation of healthcare organizations has not ruled the ban must Start Jan 1 a institutions must Only restrict smoking to designated areas and have a plan in place to ban All smoking in two years. If they done to said commission spokesman Stephen Davidow Quot it could adversely affect their accreditation a which Means their reimbursements from medicare and other insurance could be affected along with their state licensing Bond ratings and their ability to attract staff. Still some hospitals Are Balking. Pennsylvania a department of Public welfare has said it will not ban smoking at its 13 accredited state psychiatric hospitals. Its unfair to patients who Are involuntarily hospitalized or face Long stays officials said. And if this puts their accreditation at risk a we will take a wait and see attitude a said spokeswoman Vicki Smink. While no one disputes the physical health benefits of snuffing out cigarettes doctors who run drug treatment programs and psychiatric units worry about the Impact of the ban on their patients mental health. Quot you certainly could say one has to be concerned about whether this is a Good thing to do with psychiatric patients a said or. Alexander Glassman a Columbia University psychiatrist whose research has shown the connection Between smoking and depression. Psychiatric patients smoke More and quit less. Studies have shown that people with a history of depression Are More than 50 percent less Likely to succeed in quitting and Are far More Likely to become depressed when they do quit. Unlike irritability depression is an exceedingly rare symptom of tobacco withdrawal in the general population Only 10 percent to 15 percent of people experience depression when they quit smoking. But Glassman found that among people with a history of depression 80 percent became depressed when they tried to give up cigarettes. And unlike irritability depression May linger Long after withdrawal. A nobody stays a More irritable person because they suit smoking a Glassman said. A that Isnit so Clear with expression. Most people get through it. But some do  How Many nobody knows. A we done to have a lot of research on tobacco withdrawal in psychiatric patients partly because not a lot of psychiatric patients quit a said or. John Hughes a psychiatrist at the University of Vermont in Burlington who studies nicotine and caffeine dependency. Fifty percent of psychiatric patients smoke studies show compared with 30 percent of the general population Hughes said. Some 80 percent of schizophrenics and manic depressive patients smoke he Saia. Recent studies of teen agers at seven Nashua  hospitals showed smoking among almost 100 percent of those admitted for drug or alcohol treatment and 70 percent of psychiatric patients. That compares with Only 17 percent of adolescents in the Community at Large said or. John Docherty medical director for 80 psychiatric hospitals nationwide. At Nashua a Brookside Hospital where Docherty is based a Complete smoking ban has been successfully instituted for adolescents. A one of the problems that showed up is when you Stop the nicotine a Large number had a severe worsening of psychiatric symptoms specifically anxiety and depression a Docherty said. A a couple developed some very difficult to treat  at g. Or reducing the natural i g to Zero requires a change in Speed of 32 feet per second in a single second while 1.8 Gas is not a Challenge to an average person it is a lot More than people encounter in everyday life. John k. Lauber a member of the National transportation safety Board the Federal Agency that investigates plane crashes said an airline passenger generally feels forces no greater than 1.5 Gas. Vav in Nick said the motion a supports the environment that a being described to you  by combining the suggestion of motion with the full visual Impact the ride induces the mind to accept that the rider is fully involved in the action. Integrating the platform with the movie is critical. Aviation experts say that movement perfectly manageable in a real vehicle can produce a simulator sickness if the visual Cue differs from the motion perceived by a rider s inner car. The movie was shot with a computer controlled camera which moved the Lens from Point a to Point b at a rate and along a trajectory set by human operators. That computer was then yoked to a control computer for the motion platform said Winnick. The ride is essentially a Chase scene. The visitors Delorean is careering through time and space in an attempt to overtake a Delorean hijacked by the All time miscreant Biff Tannin who threatens to run rampant and a disrupt the space time continuum a As an Over breathless r. Emmett Brown Christopher Lloyd tells visitors via videotape As they Board. The ride begins and ends with a whiff of nitrogen Gas which creates a ghostly fog. During the ride cold wind blows Over the audience to simulate motion. A 10,000-Watt multichannel stereo system helps too. Disney would not discuss the technology behind its flight simulator rides the first of which opened in january 1990. They Are larger compartments also on motion platforms facing a smaller screen. But a Disney world spokesman John dry or said rides that move people in dramatic ways As opposed to simply showing them things Are definitely at the cutting Edge. Disney is building a a Twilight zone Tower of terror a in which visitors will descend 13 stories in free fall he said. Eventually with faster and cheaper computers amusement Park rides could become interactive but Winnick said that on his ride a passenger would have trouble holding onto a Joystick. Instead he said a Aback to the future offers a an artificial reality a very personal  miserable Marcus Marcus appears to be a very unhappy Pooch As Steve Myers hauls him to the Heights of a Cliff overlooking the Otake Creek in Leroy . Myers a member of the Massas auge search and Rescue team planned to lower Marcus to the ground to test a new harness. The team often uses dogs during its Rescue operations