Scientists from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) are looking for new ways to carry out searches in wide areas through the use of gaming technology.

Conducting a search of an area is a common and important task for military forces – from locating persons in distress, to catching people-smugglers and pirates through to identifying and locating enemy submarines. However, there are a number of factors such as geography, the characteristics and behaviour of the target, and the forces and equipment available to the searcher which can all contribute to the effectiveness of the search.

In order to investigate ways to overcome these issues, researchers at Dstl are running a public competition with £27,000 worth of funding available to create a web-based game in which search scenarios can be established and played out.

Once the competition is complete and the best game has been selected, the scientists at Dstl plan to eventually make the game publicly accessible online so that they can analyse the methods used by those playing the game to inform future approaches to search.

Dr Martin Fowler, Chief Scientific Advisor, Maritime Warfare Centre at HMS Collingwood, Fareham said: “In supporting this initiative, our aim is that this competition will provide tools to aid us in the further study of search tactics and problems. While we are coming at this from a defence perspective there are clear implications for civilian applications. So by opening the competition up to the public we hope to get some really innovative and exciting ideas to help us.”