Unravelling VR


auditory senses are real. This is thought to be due to the spatial nature of the medium. The only other dimension where our brain has experienced 360-degree, three-dimensional content before was in Real Reality (RR). Providing the content is created adhering to design principles to prevent motion sickness and designed to make the viewer feel ‘present’ in this alternate reality, the brain believes the simulation to be real. This comes with an ethical responsibility for content creators.


An important point to note is that there are two very different types of content that can be viewed or interacted with on a VR headset – live action (otherwise known as 360 video content) or computer generated (animation).


Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality are creating a buzz worldwide, but especially so within the L&D world. With so much information bouncing around on how it can help in training, Camille Donegan and Dr Celine Mullins have distilled some of the facts and debunked some of the myths in how VR can enable a better L&D experience.


ESSENTIAL DEFINITIONS


Virtual Reality (VR) is when the viewers audio and visual senses are taken-over by a VR headset display and headphones. This enables the viewer to be transported anywhere, even into the perspective of another human being (known as embodiment).


Augmented Reality (AR) is when the viewer can still see the real world (their physical environment) but some extra information, such as video, imagery or audio is overlaid into that view. AR content is primarily experienced via mobile phones or tablets, but in the not too distant future, AR glasses will be used.


Although VR and AR creation tools are remarkably similar, the end result is vastly different. VR is good for some use cases and pointless for others, vice versa for AR.


So why is VR so powerful for training?


When using VR headsets, creators have the power to trick the brain into thinking that the input being received by the visual and


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In training, VR is being used in almost any sector or industry you can name – healthcare, manufacturing, aviation, pharmaceutical, automotive, military, and corporate training.


Walmart have invested heavily in VR training, purchasing 17,000 Oculus Go headsets to train their staff. The training solutions delivered via the VR headsets is both soft skills and technical skills training. For example, Walmart train their staff on how to handle the madness of the store during Black Friday by filming a re-enactment (using actors) of what happens in a Walmart store on the busiest shopping day of the year. Authenticity is key with these kind of experiences in VR - any sign of acting and your brain won’t be tricked any more.


For many years, VR training companies have created 2D training and educational videos for their clients aiming to film in the real office environment, on a real working day. This work utilises actual staff members where possible and actors in other scenarios. With the immersive medium of VR, it can make a big difference to the authenticity of the experience by using real staff members, particularly when embodying the job role expert, so that learners learn from experienced colleagues.


The use cases for these two types of content are different from a training perspective. If you want to immerse the trainee in a soft skills training scenario, then you need to be looking at real humans, therefore utilising filmed content. Alternatively, if you need to train staff in a hazardous environment or with technical skills requiring interactivity with objects, then the content needs to be computer generated (CG). When working with CG content, you need a game engine (Unity or Unreal) to create the training simulation, 3D models and mechanics for the interactions. With 360-video, following filming with a 360-camera, the footage is stitched together with specialist software to create a seamless surrounding image for the viewer.


VR has been dubbed the empathy making machine and utilised by the UN to put potential donators, as well as world economic leaders into the shoes of people in difficult situations such as refugee camps or areas hit by natural disasters. Therefore, where VR adds value is for use with case studies which transport the viewer to another physical environment and/or into another human being’s shoes or perspective (via first- person-perspective filming).


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