Virtual Reality (VR)

Virtual Reality (VR) is a simulated experience that lets you immerse yourself in a computer-generated world, feeling as if you’re actually there. This can range from playing games in fantastical realms to exploring real-world locations and even interacting with objects and people in these environments. It’s like stepping inside a different reality, allowing you to see, hear, and sometimes even touch and interact with the world around you, all while staying in the comfort of your own space.

On the technical side, VR relies on a combination of hardware and software to create this immersive experience. The hardware usually includes a VR headset (sometimes referred to as a head-mounted device or HMD) that covers your eyes and ears, along with motion controllers to track your movements. The headset contains high-resolution screens for each eye, creating a stereoscopic effect, and uses sensors to track your head movements, adjusting the visual perspective accordingly. The software aspect involves computer-generated imagery (CGI) and 3D modeling to create the virtual environment, which is rendered in real-time as you explore it. Advanced algorithms and graphical processing units (GPUs) are employed to ensure the environment responds smoothly to your actions, providing a seamless and immersive experience.

What does business and industry say about VR in training?

Good things. Actually, VERY good things.

• How’s this for starters¹?
  • Employees in VR courses can be trained up to 4x faster
  • VR learners are 275% more confident in applying what they’re taught
  • Employees are 3.75x more emotionally connected to VR content
  • VR learners are 4x more focused
  • VR learning is more cost-effective at scale

What does industry training in VR look like?

One of the great things about training in VR is the ability to work on potentially dangerous equipment safely. Not only is the potential to get hurt present when working with industrial equipment, but there is the potential to damage the equipment or hurt others around you. Both of which are VERY costly and dangerous things to happen.

If you haven’t yet, watch the video above to see what I mean.

Here is another example of the power of VR. This time, instead of the trainee messing up. What if the trainer could install faults/problems in the equipment safely that the trainee must discover and solve. Installing faults in real equipment could permanently damage the training equipment leading to high costs and low availability. But we could totally burn down the plant in VR and respawn it all back to the original in an instant. See the video below for an example.

These CGI models are great, but can I use photographic VR?

Yes! In fact, photographic VR would make use of 360-degree cameras (like these from Ricoh) and on-site photography of the physical location and/or equipment the training is designed for. Furthermore, by having photos and videos of the real-world environment, not only are the levels of realism greatly increased, but the development time is actually shorter because the world doesn’t have to be created, it just has to be captured.

For an example of how this can work, here’s a little prototype of a VR training sequence for servicing Variable Frequency Drives (VFD) at my office in Raleigh, North Carolina. The demo is behind a VPN, so please watch the video for the demo.

1. The Effectiveness of Virtual Reality Soft Skills Training in the Enterprise, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) 2022 Metaverse Survey ↩︎