WASHINGTON - The University of Northern Iowa's Waste Reduction Center showed off new technology for training military spray paint technicians on Capitol Hill Tuesday.

The Virtual Paint Trainer is a teaching tool for workers who paint Department of Defense vehicles and aircraft. The virtual-reality program consists of a handheld spray paint gun, a motion tracking device and a 72-inch plasma television screen. The painting is simulated through a computer program that tracks and detects the spray gun's position and reflects the paint onto a virtual door on the screen.

Trainees in the Iowa Waste Reduction Center's military paint trainer program in Cedar Falls are able to learn the basics of applying paint to a truck before they begin spraying actual paint coatings on U.S. military vehicles.

"Once you set up the gun properly, you can work on technique, consistency, keeping the gun perpendicular and distance for the right overlap," said Jeremiah Treloar, the center's research assistant and waste reduction specialist.

Treloar said the Waste Reduction Center is able to educate more people with the Virtual Paint Trainer in comparison to teaching with real paint due to reduced cost and waste. The program also allows trainees to practice their spray technique as many times as they would like.

"Over the years we've been looking for good hands-on training, but it's hard to have a large class - it gets messy and time-consuming to prepare the parts and paint," Treloar said.

Trainees learn how to adjust the instrument, including selecting the type of gun and paint, thickness of paint, the flow rate, and the pattern for the size of the release of the paint. Two knobs on the spray gun simulate how the gun would spray actual paint.

After a simulation is complete, a printout shows the time it took to paint the virtual door, the amount and cost of paint used and efficiency. The printout also shows the average thickness and evenness of the paint.

Treloar and two other Waste Reduction Center staffers demonstrated the virtual painting process in a large foyer at a House office building, across the street from the Capitol dome.

The university joined with the Southwest Research Institute, based out of San Antonio, to develop the new technology.

"It's a great tool for training painters more effectively and efficiently," said Brian Fisher, manager of the Southwest Research Institute.

Don Short, executive director of Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area in Cedar Valley, watched the demonstration and planned to try out the virtual reality painting system for himself.

"I'm just amazed at what you can do," Short said.

Contact Katie Heinz at k-heinz@northwestern.edu.