Arithmetica has produced an immersive training presentation to help improve the hazard awareness of workers in a coal-fired power station. The training is being credited with helping to improve workers’ hazard awareness, as well as increasing their perception of risk and supporting decision making.
The company paired up with Cape plc, a firm that offers services to the energy and natural resources industries, to turn a training storyboard into an immersive experience. The team captured 360 degree video footage of the Eggborough Power Station over a period of two days, after which they processed it to produce a 360-degree view from the perspective of a member of staff on site. This video is supplemented by commentary from Cape and can piped into multiple Samsung GearVR headsets, allowing a full class of trainees to experience the visualization simultaneously.
Virtual reality technology has many potential uses, but none more potentially life-saving than the training of workers in hazardous environments.
“When people are working in the same environment for long periods of time, their perception of risk can be lowered,” said Marc Allert, Risk Coach at Cape, in an official statement. “They can even lose respect for the hazards they face every day.”
Virtual reality experiences, like this one generated by Arithmetica, tend to offer higher than average information retention rates among trainees. In addition, they allow trainees to witness or rehearse dangerous tasks in a safe virtual environment as well as prepare proper responses for emergency situations.
“To date we have trained several hundred members of staff using the SphereVision solution,” explained Allert. “The feedback has been unanimously positive, as relevant messages are communicated in a realistic, hard-hitting way yet still easy to comprehend.”
