The virtual reality (VR) industry is growing at a startling pace: consumer VR hardware and software markets are projected to be worth over $16 billion by 2020. Meanwhile, companies like Facebook, Hyundai, and Accenture have already adopted VR solutions to help connect, educate, and entertain their users.

While VR once revolved around 360-pixel videos that somewhat limited the user experience, nowadays, the technology had made significant advances. 5K and 8K stereoscopic videos are able to create depth perception and heightened visual projections that share far more immersive experiences. At the same time, VR has begun moving away from the confines of gaming and entered into spheres like recruitment, healthcare, marketing, design, and travel.

No doubt, VR is becoming more commonplace in everyday tasks, and is gaining considerable momentum as a valuable tool. Here are some of the technological advances taking immersive virtual experiences to the next level:

6 Degrees of Freedom

6DoF (Degrees of Freedom) relates to the motion along or about an axis, and is used in VR to build 3D objects that can move in a space. The movement happens in three directional axes and three rotational axes hence six degrees of freedom. Within VR, 6DoF describes how axes are tracked, meaning the distance and orientation of axes as monitored by hardware (like a headset or glasses).

3DoF allows for a full range of motions within a virtual world; for example, users can watch a film and interact with the scenery or characters. However, 3DoF is usually limited to being stationary while wearing a VR device and journeying through a place. 6DoF on the other hand, tracks the movement of the hardware in vectors, so users can walk through virtual realities. With this option, users have a complete motion range in a 360-degree world they can wander around and explore the details. They can also use both hands to react and respond to changes in scenarios, like picking up items from the ground.

Some companies are utilizing 6DoF capabilities to facilitate training for high-risk professions. Rather than pay to send teams to offshore oil rigs, 6DoF VR provides onboarding programs that help technicians prepare and adapt to conditions. For instance, VR can simulate carrying heavy equipment, experiencing severe storms, and enacting fire safety protocols.

Although 6DoF is already available as a form of VR, it is significantly more expensive and complicated to set-up in comparison to 3DoF. That said, as the industry scales and the benefits of VR are recognised (particularly in corporate business), there is the possibility that more affordable versions of 6DoF will be released.

Wearables

Accessing virtual reality has typically only been possible with oversized, clunky headsets connected to a range of wires and machines. Yet there are now signs that wearables small devices that can be worn on peoples bodies will offer the same access without compromising quality or experience.

Facebook Reality Labs recently announced that it has introduced a miniaturisation process in VR and had designed lightweight glasses for a full VR experience. The near-eye displays are said to combine the power of holographic optics and polarisation-based optical folding to use space efficiently. Not to mention, the glasses have laser illumination to deliver a broader spectrum of colour than traditional VR technology. The sophisticated technology allows for VR sessions that last for longer and can even improve productivity among users due to a comfortable, cleaner overall experience.

While Facebook is certainly pioneering a wearable VR device, the industry as a whole still needs more research and development to commercialise portable, personal VR use. Unlike smartphones and existing wearables that have optimised the user experience through data, VR wearables still need to find a way to incorporate user behaviour. Nonetheless, there are systems being built to increase usability and functionality of VR in wearables. These systems propose having APIs that plug in to a selection of smart wearables across different operating systems (Android and iOS). For example, VR glasses could connect with a VR retail app so that users can shop virtually in a store. If successfully achieved, inter connectivity within VR could completely revolutionise everyday actions.

Eye-tracking

An important element of immersive VR is creating a world that doesnt just simply place a user in a location, but that the location is tailored to the users presence. Eye tracking is key to bridge the gap between reality and virtual reality.

By monitoring what users eyes focus on, VR projections can be fine-tuned to the best resolution. Foveated rendering, as its known, reduces the image quality in the peripheral vision and sharpens whatever the user is looking at. Subsequently, the quality of VR is enhanced and processing systems can save GPU cycles when not having to support complete renderings. Another bonus is that eye-tracking can smooth the frame rate, so users feel less nausea.

Its worth noting that eye-tracking in VR aligns well with wearables, particularly thinner glasses that can more precisely monitor eye movements. Currently, some VR headsets are too thick to efficiently track eye response.

Obstacles to overcome

Beyond 6DoF, wearables, and eye-tracking, for VR to be more immersive, it needs to see the release of more premium content. A number of mobile apps are realising the void and attempting to uberize it and offer on-demand services via mobile. Back in 2017, news outlets like the New York Times rolled out daily 360-degree video reports to place readers directly in a story. Although the stories didnt envelope users, it was a step towards high-quality, mainstream VR content. Still, the difficulty that remains for content producers is having the expertise and funds to keep up with technological advances in VR.

In general, cost is certainly a barrier for VR, with the average headset priced at $600. If companies cant afford to expand into VR, and people cant afford to regularly use it, the industry is in danger of stalling. Be that as it may, the next generation of VR is demonstrating value in a way that previously didnt exist, and thus helps to justify the high costs. Equally, as cost-effective modes of production and distribution are realised, prices could gradually fall.

By solidifying wholly immersive experiences, VR is transitioning away from a trial-and-error business model and into an established industry at the forefront of innovation. Of course, there is plenty more work to be done, but judging from its ongoing progress, VR is set to be a permanent, extraordinary reality.

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The technological advances that will take immersive virtual experiences to the next level - AV Magazine

The Albemarle County School Board voted 4-3 to offer solely online learning for the vast majority of public school students for the first nine weeks of school beginning September 8. In-person instruction inside school buildings will be limited to students who are English language learners (in grades 4-12), those with special education needs, and those who lack adequate internet access at home. All other students will receive virtual instruction in various forms both synchronously (live with an online teacher) and asynchronously (via recorded videos and online assignments).

The focus of the boards July 30 presentation stood in stark contrast to its July 9 emphasis on hybrid (a mix of in-person and online) learning options, in which students would attend in-person classes from one to four times per week depending on three different transportation and capacity scenarios. Those plans were shelved for the foreseeable future as the school division pivoted to five stages of returning, with Stage 1 being virtual learning for all and Stage 5 in-person learning for all. The board ultimately selected Stage 2 for reopening. (See nearby table of stages.)

The hybrid learning scenarios are now subsumed under the new Stage 4 in the progression that will be adopted gradually as COVID-19 conditions improve. The division expects between 1,000 and 1,500 students to be in school buildings during Stage 2. Those students would be coached through their assigned virtual learning lessons by volunteer teachers from throughout the school system, while maintaining social distance and masking requirements.

The boards vote on the reopening stage was split as members struggled with the decision. Three board members (Judy Le, Ellen Osborne, and Graham Paige) voted no on the motion for a Stage 2 reopening because they preferred Stage 1, with no in-person instruction of any kind. White Hall representative David Oberg paused for more than a minute before also voting no, causing the initial motion to fail. After a recess, Oberg recalled the motion and changed his vote to yes so that it passed along with the votes of Katrina Callsen, Kate Acuff, and Jonno Alcaro.

This is one of the hardest things Ive done on the School Board, said Oberg. Theres no good answer to any of this. Weve received literally thousands of emails and all have had a good basis for their positions.

Before the vote, division staff presented the results of recent school staff and parent surveys, in which 65% of teachers and staff said they were uncomfortable returning to work for face-to-face instruction. While 51% of parents said they were moderately or extremely concerned about in-person learning, 67% said they preferred a hybrid learning option over a virtual option for their children.

Board member Katrina Callsen, the mother of a rising kindergartener and first grader, expressed sympathy for parents who now have to become teachers in their homes. What I wonder about is the accountability piece, she said. Do parents have to help their young kids synchronously, or will there be other options? How do we do assessments to know if a kid is on target, and what structures will be in place for parents trying to do this? Staff responded that they are working on common division assessments and common timing for content across the division.

The Stage 2 reopening plan allows Superintendent Matt Haas to move the school system back to Stage 1 without board input if things move quickly in the wrong direction, even before the September 8 start date. We need stability, but also flexibility, said Haas. We will watch the new Virginia Department of Health dashboard, which is school division-specific, to give us greater detail about our locality. Haas and his staff will evaluate COVID-19 conditions during each nine-week segment at the half-way point to decide if the schools can move to the next stage. (See the nearby list of factors the division will consider.)

The division said it would look for conditions such as a less than 10-per-100,000 case incidence rate (the countys rate is currently 10.1) with a decreasing trend on new cases (currently increasing), and a below-10% positivity rate in testing (currently 5.7%), with a decreasing trend in positivity (currently decreasing). Specific protocols for what would happen if a student or staff member becomes sick during Stage 2 include contact tracing and a 14-day quarantine to monitor symptoms.

As for next steps, the division plans to release virtual learning details and a response plan for illness or suspected/confirmed COVID-19 cases by early August, and the School Board meeting on August 13 will include final decisions about the 2020-21 school calendar and a mask policy.

Several events in July provided context for the School Boards July 30 decision.

Three hybrid scenarios were presented to the board during its July 9 meeting. The scenarios were based on the limiting factor of school bus capacity, as buses can carry only 12 to 24 students under proper distancing rules. Across the three options, elementary students would generally attend in-person school four days a week, while secondary (middle and high school) students would attend in-person from as little as four days every five weeks to as many as two days each week.

At the July 9 meeting, board member Katrina Callsen said she appreciated the scenarios that involved in-person instruction, especially for younger students. Our role is to educate all students, and [virtual learning] hasnt been shown to be as effective for younger students. We know that over 10% of our students didnt have a single virtual interaction [last spring] and it was troublesome to me to think that we might be leaving those students behind. What virtual learning looks like with a first grader is a parent doing it with them, so we are ultimately leaving our most vulnerable students behind if we dont offer them an option to come into school.

Teachers responded with dismay during the public comment segment of the meeting. Having [the plan] kept from us until today felt very hurtful and disrespectful, said Jack Jouett Middle School teacher Mary McIntyre. We have to execute your plan. Execute seems like an appropriate word for this. If it is so safe for us to return to school, why arent you having your meetings in person? You are asking us to do something you would not do yourselves.

Though they originally planned to settle on a student schedule at the July 9 meeting, the board decided to wait until teachers had been surveyed about their opinions on the proposed scenarios (survey dates July 10-22), and parents had been surveyed regarding whether they planned to use bus transportation and whether their children would attend in-person or virtually (July 20 to 30). The board agreed to decide on a reopening plan at their July 30 meeting.

Several days after the July 9 meeting, Albemarle county teachers posted an open letter to Superintendent Matt Haas and the School Board explicitly requesting that the face-to-face learning plan be scrapped and the division instead pivot to a virtual opening. It is unequivocally unsafe for Albemarle County staff and families to begin the year with an in-person learningmodel, read the letter, which was signed by over 500 teachers from across the school system. The letter rebutted the idea that a return to in-person learning would restore a sense of normalcy for students, and called on the School Board to pivot to a virtual learning plan quickly to give teachers time to adequately prepare for the fall semester.

Below the letters text and signatories was a list of over 150 questions from teachers about how a face-to-face reopening would be handled, from overall policy considerations to day-to-day operations. In response to the teachers letter, Superintendent Haas posted an update on a school employee news blog in which he declared that he would present an online-only option at the School Boards July 30 meeting, to be considered in addition to the three hybrid scenarios.

Following the teachers letter, an open letter from parents was posted on Google during the week of July 20 asking the board to continue planning for in-person instruction, citing benefits to child and adolescent mental and physical well-being from attending school with their fellow students.

Finally, just ahead of the July 30 meeting, the school division hosted three Town Hall virtual gatherings on July 23, 24, and 27, intended to provide the community with updated COVID-19 health data and recommendations and to allow parents to ask questions of School Board members, who attended the meetings in pairs. The Town Halls laid bare the extent to which many basic questions about the in-person learning model remained unanswered, as school board members were unable to respond to queries such as how the virtual portion of hybrid learning would actually work and who would teach it.

After the boards July 30 meeting in which a Stage 2 reopening was selected, the Charlottesville City Schools decided on an online-only model for their schools as well, with a forthcoming decision on whether to allow the same limited groups of students as the county to attend in-person.

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Virtual Reality: School Board Opts for Online Instruction - The Crozet Gazette

Theres no shortage of people trying to make virtual reality gaminga more immersive experience. There areVR arenaswhere people strap onPC backpacksand play in a pre-programmed area. There areglovesandshoes, andeven VRtreadmills.Nothing seems to have thatfull immersionfactor, though,either because the person playingstill needs to sit down to game, the haptic technology isnt responsive enough, or because the headsetis too large and expensive. But nowsoftware engineerAlexander Evansis making his own 3D-printedVR shoes,and they look like the best VRaccessory todate.

Evans posted his creation, which kind of lookslike an80s moonshoe prototype,toReddita few days ago. Each shoe has one track of horizontally facing wheels and one track of vertically facing wheelsor omnidirectional wheels. Theres also a motor attached to each battery-poweredshoe to help control movement. Users dont need to necessarily lift their feet off the ground, either. The shoes are heavy, but are designed to give users the ability to glide in multiple directions.

Evans noted inhisblogthatthe shoes should be used with a safety harness mounted to the ceiling, which will prevent the user from rolling into any walls and possibly injuring themselves or breaking something while wearing a VR headset. That seems to indicate thatthe garage would bethe best place for this. Apartment dwellers might have to talk with their landlord if they want to install a safety harness in their kitchen or bedroom.

Also, at present the shoes have to be manually controlled with an Android app, but Evans is working with the software to automate movement and integrate it with VR games.

I did not expect them to be very responsive or stable at this point. Still, for the very first tests, they worked well, he wrote.

He also plans to support crouching in the future, as well as jogging speed, but doesnt think the shoes will support a full-out sprint. The issue is adding shocks to the whole design, he said. He has made his design for anyone to use and improve upon, too. The 3D-printing files can bedownloaded from GitHub.

It seems like these shoes could help with motion sickness. Theres only theories at this point as to why VR makes some people sick and not others, but one of those theories issensory conflict: When your brain sees itself moving in the game but doesnt feel itself moving, it can cause confusion. Our bodies naturally dip and sway when we walk, and our eyes detect that slight movement. To see that movement but not physically feel itcan cause some people to feel sick.

When I play VR games in first person, I dont feel sick if Im stationary in the game, but the second I start walking or running, a wave of nausea blasts my entire head. I havent had the opportunity to test any VR mobility setups, butI would try these motorised shoes in a heartbeat.

Excerpt from:

These Motorised Shoes Could Be the Key to Making Virtual Reality Fully Immersive - Gizmodo UK

UAE: Dubais Roads & Transport Authority and metro and tram operator Serco are using virtual reality during the training of tram drivers.

Introducing cutting-edge technologies avails trainee drivers of interactive experiences and opportunities, said Hassan Mohammad Al Mutawa, Director of Operations at RTAs Rail Agency. They will be subjected to various scenarios to hone their skills of controlling trams and avoiding incidents. Such exposure will also boost the safety of passengers and develop drivers reactions towards anticipating and avoiding the mistakes of others.

Future plans include using VR to support maintenance, risk assessments, incident investigations and safety training.

Wallace Weatherill, Managing Director of Serco Middle East for the Dubai Metro & Tram contract, said VR-based training would supplement traditional training methods to help trainees transition between classroom-based theoretical training and in-cab practical training. Better-prepared trainee drivers will also be less likely to be involved in an incident during training, he said.

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Virtual reality based training for tram drivers | Urban news - Railway Gazette International

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Theres more to the virtual work trend than days full of Zoom calls from a home office. It also means the possibility of new ways of getting work done. In the physical world, work at a company or university exists in a hierarchical structure; in a virtual world, that work can get done in a more decentralised, democratic manner.

Those who lacked influence suddenly can acquire much greater visibility and prominence, all without the approval of traditional gatekeepers. This potential for expanded participation from previously excluded voices is an underappreciated disruption that could change the way society operates.

The story of Nathan Tankus, who was in news in recent days, is one such example. Despite not even having a bachelors degree yet, hes become an influential voice on economics and monetary policy, writing in a clear and compelling manner on the subject.

We might not give credit to working from home or virtual work for this, but those lines have become blurred in economics and finance. Long gone are the days where traders had to be on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, or where economists and academics had to be in Washington, New York or on a college campus to contribute to the field.

Whats notable about Tankus is the progressive angle of his views, which might be related to not having to get past the sentries in academia or Wall Street to make his views heard. Hes found an audience on his own, is building a base of subscribers to his newsletter and can expand from there.

The more economics, media and financial industries become detached from physical offices, the more opportunities there are for people like Tankus without traditional pedigrees to influence debates from which those like him were once excluded.

Another example is the growing community known as Election Twitter. A generation ago, the political campaign infrastructure and media was concentrated in Washington, with a focus on the national and state parties and their leadership.

Election Twitter

Increasingly, thats happening in a more decentralised manner and on the internet, with Election Twitter being an extreme example of how that can play out in practice.

Many members of this community are quite young some are even in their teens and their hobby is generating colour-coded maps for past elections and scrutinising political polls.

And they may be in the process of going from observing elections to shaping them. Noticing that national trends might mean Alaska races in 2020 could be competitive, but lacking polling for the state, they set out to crowdfund a poll to gauge the state of the race there.

They succeeded, and the poll they commissioned showed a close race. With that information now public, campaigns in Alaska can show that poll to their supporters, leading donors to target the race in a way they might not have otherwise. Its another example of people working remotely, coordinating to get things done.

All virtual work

Music is another industry thats been reshaped by virtual work. Last years viral sensation, Old Town Road by Lil Nas X, was a song that was a product of virtual work.

It was a beat that Lil Nas X, living in suburban Atlanta at the time, bought from a producer he didnt know and had never met who lived outside of Amsterdam, turned into a song, and then marketed on social media platforms such as SoundCloud, TikTok and Twitter before he had a record deal or had even performed the song in public.

Taylor Swifts latest album was produced virtually as well. Different parts of the album were created in New York, Los Angeles, Paris and Wisconsin, with nobody meeting face-to-face because of coronavirus travel restrictions.

Although the music industry may continue to be anchored in traditional hubs like Los Angeles, New York and Nashville, Tennessee, its now possible to participate from anywhere with talent and luck.

What ties all of these stories together is the blurring of working virtually and the way content is created and distributed on the internet. Even before the pandemic led to the closure of offices, people were responding to work calls and emails on their phone, and companies were putting out corporate communications on Facebook and Twitter.

Now big companies and their employees are being forced to operate on the same playing field, competing with people who are native to the new virtual world and have already found success working this way. The old hierarchies and the roles of the gatekeepers may never be the same.

Conor Sen is a columnist. He has been a contributor to the Atlantic and Business Insider.

Continued here:

A new virtual reality is reshaping the world - Gulf News

NEW YORK (PRWEB) August 10, 2020

Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, teachers have been forced to adjust lesson plans and find more creative ways to enhance learning. In a new interview with C.M. Rubin, Founder of CMRubinWorld, Educator and Game Designer Paul Darvasi says that the research on game-based learning has exploded over the last fifteen years. Countless studies provide support for the effective use of digital games and simulations in diverse contexts, says Darvasi. Educators have been sharing lessons and experiences online that model how to leverage commercial games for instruction. Darvasi believes that in the future, virtual reality will accelerate in use to create greater opportunities to undertake learning in immersive environments.

Games were used to enhance and support online teaching and learning during the pandemic. Digital games demand interaction and participation, two qualities that now characterize much of the lives of the school-aged generation, says Darvasi.

Read the full article here

Paul Darvasi is an educator, game designer, speaker, and writer whose work looks at the intersection of games, culture and learning. His research explores how commercial video games can be used as texts for critical analysis by adolescents.

CMRubinWorlds award-winning series, The Global Search for Education, brings together distinguished thought leaders in education and innovation from around the world to explore the key learning issues faced by most nations. The series has become a highly visible platform for global discourse on 21st century learning, offering a diverse range of innovative ideas which are presented by the series founder, C. M. Rubin, together with the worlds leading thinkers.

For more information on CMRubinWorld

Follow @CMRubinWorld on Twitter

Contact Information:

David Wine

David(at)cmrubinworld(dot)com

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Global Education Thought Leader and Game Expert Predicts Greater Opportunities for Games and Virtual Reality in Immersive Learning Environments - PR...

These are the days of fever dreams, whether induced by an actual virus or by the slow-motion stresses of a world dealing with a pandemic. One kind of dream in particular that I know Ive had has to do with discovering that this was all, well, a dream. Except, when I really do wake up, I remember that there are ideas about the nature of reality that go beyond even this. The trickiest variant of these concepts is the simulation hypothesis, which is that we far more likely exist within a virtual reality than in a physical reality.

The proposition that the world is a sham is not new; its been cropping up for thousands of years across different cultures, from China to ancient Greece, advocated by thinkers like Descartes with his mind-body dualism. But this more recent version, based around computationor at least artificial reconstructionbubbled up around 2003 with the publication of a paper titled Are You Living in a Computer Simulation? by the philosopher Nick Bostrom. In essence Bostrom makes the argument that if any extremely advanced civilizations develop the capacity to run ancestor simulations (to learn about their own pasts) the simulated ancestral entities would likely far outnumber actual sentient entities in the universe. With a little probabilistic hand-waving it is then possible to argue that we are most likely simulated.

All of which is good fun if youve had a few beers or spent a few too many hours cowering under your bedclothes. But while you might love or hate this hypothesis, the simple fact is that before judging it we should really apply the criteria we use for assessing any hypothesis, and the first step in that process is to ask whether it can be assessed in any reasonable way.

Intriguingly, the simulation hypothesis might be testable, under certain assumptions. For example, we might suppose that a simulation has its limitations. The most obvious one, extrapolating from the current state of digital computation, is simply that a simulation will have to make approximations to save on information storage and calculation overheads. In other words: it would have limits on accuracy and precision.

One way that those limits could manifest themselves is in the discretization of the world, perhaps showing up in spatial and temporal resolution barriers. Although we do think that there are some absolute limits in what constitutes meaningful small distances or time intervalsthe Planck scale and Planck timethat has to do with the limits of our current understanding of physics rather than the kind of resolution limits on your pixelated screen. Nonetheless, recent research suggests that the true limit of meaningful intervals of time might be orders of magnitude larger than the traditional Planck time (which itself is 10-43 seconds). Perhaps future physics experiments could reveal an unexpected chunkiness to time and space.

But the neatest test of the hypothesis would be to crash the system that runs our simulation. Naturally, that sounds a bit ill-advised, but if were all virtual entities anyway does it really matter? Presumably a quick reboot and restore might bring us back online as if nothing had happened, but possibly wed be able to tell, or at very least have a few microseconds of triumph just before it all shuts down.

The question is: how do you bring down a simulation of reality from inside it? The most obvious strategy would be to try to cause the equivalent of a stack overflowasking for more space in the active memory of a program than is availableby creating an infinitely, or at least excessively, recursive process. And the way to do that would be to build our own simulated realities, designed so that within those virtual worlds are entities creating their version of a simulated reality, which is in turn doing the same, and so on all the way down the rabbit hole. If all of this worked, the universe as we know it might crash, revealing itself as a mirage just as we winked out of existence.

You could argue that any species capable of simulating a reality (likely similar to its own) would surely anticipate this eventuality and build in some safeguards to prevent it happening. For instance, we might discover that it is strangely and inexplicably impossible to actually make simulated universes of our own, no matter how powerful our computational systems arewhether generalized quantum computers or otherwise. That in itself could be a sign that we already exist inside a simulation. Of course, the original programmers might have anticipated that scenario too and found some way to trick us, perhaps just streaming us information from other simulation runs rather than letting us run our own.

But interventions like this risk undermining the reason for a species running such simulations in the first place, which would be to learn something deep about their own nature. Perhaps letting it all crash is simply the price to pay for the integrity of the results. Or perhaps theyre simply running the simulation containing us to find out whether they themselves are within a fake reality.

Sweet dreams.

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Could We Force the Universe to Crash? - Scientific American

Providing staff with opportunities for training and upskilling is an increasingly important and expensive part of running a successful modern business. According to the latest Training Industry Report, the average training expenditure for large companies in 2019 was a whopping US$17.7 million (13.5 million).

This investment, which is largely poured into conventional classroom style teaching, isnt delivering much in return, however. Online learning provider Ceregos recent State of Learning report has found that a staggering 70% of training is forgotten within 24 hours and nearly 90% is forgotten after 30 days.

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The problems associated with traditional training methods dont end here. Issues like delivering consistent training, tracking skills application, quantifying training effectiveness and improving learning effectiveness are some of the constant challenges trainers have to deal with, says Faisal Athar, lead extended reality (XR) engineer at Malaysian digital innovation firm Ministry XR.

Raffaella Camera, global head of innovation and market strategy at Accenture Extended Reality agrees, adding that training people in high-risk industries like mining and construction is particularly difficult. Learning onsite requires people to put themselves in potentially dangerous situations often before theyve completed the necessary training, she says.

This is because it has been traditionally very difficult to replicate real-life scenarios in a classroom environment. Even the best role-play actors and most convincing off-site environments can struggle to recreate a physical real-life scenario, and the high costs of these classroom based courses can often render them a real challenge to scale across an organisations workforce, says Jason Lovell, head of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) strategy at PwC UK.

The COVID-19 pandemic has not made things any easier. Its no longer possible to bring large numbers of people together in small spaces and while e-learning is one solution, its effectiveness is limited. E-learning can be more cost-effective but it can also be full of distractions a busy inbox is never far from view and your people can feel distant from the action they see online, says Lovell.

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You can watch a video or read books all you want, but its not the same as being in front of machinery and equipment, feeling the tools in your hands, and getting real-time feedback or changes take place in front of you, adds Ramon Llamas, research director for mobile devices and AR/VR at IDC.

With all this in mind, the time is ripe for VR technologies to enter the fore and to transform training for the better.

VR training can combat the shortfalls of traditional methods of training and further complement them. By wholly immersing workers in an VR experience, you can connect to them in a way that being talked at or reading off a screen doesnt, explains Colin Yellowley, founder and managing director of Igloo Vision, a UK-based firm that uses shared immersive spaces to show VR content. As the old Confucius quote puts it, I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand.

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Unlike traditional practices, VR training can be constantly repeated for improving skill sets, or even randomised to create new scenarios for training. User performance can be tracked and graded automatically. Moreover, this type of training is scalable to hundreds or even thousands of people.

These VR environments also allow trainees to experience equipment or substances that would otherwise be limited or inaccessible. Llamas provides a good example: For instance, training a warehouse worker to use a forklift truck can be an expensive process. You have to take a machine offline for a certain amount of time, train the employee, and the employee could end up damaging the machine or other assets. In a VR setting, a user can virtually pilot a forklift around a warehouse, conducting the proper exercises and safety steps to ensure correct usage. At the same time, the actual forklift stays in use and nothing gets damaged.

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While all of these benefits are significant, whats perhaps most impressive is VRs effectiveness.

Recent research from the University of Cambridgehas found that training via VR resulted in 28% more productivity, 55% faster learning and 200% less mistakes than non-VR methods.

A number of pioneering organisations are already enjoying these benefits. Global retailer Walmart, for example, has reported 80% savings in training time by using VR to prepare store managers for Black Friday, Americas biggest shopping day.

UK wastewater utility solutions providerLanes Group is using its Igloo Shared VR cylinder to train groups of engineers in simulations of various high-risk wastewater environments. Not only has this been successful, its reduced employee attrition by 57% and decreased employee unhappiness by 9%.

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The University School of Medicine in Atlanta, meanwhile, is using VR to train surgeons, resulting in a 40% reduction in mistakes made compared to surgeons who are conventionally trained.

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Multinational oil and gas company BP, meanwhile, is integrating its own content into VR-based training provider Immerses Virtual Enterprise Platform (VEP). The training will be deployed internationally, and the platform will generate detailed data and reports on learner progress.

VR and Simulation are key enablers to BPs digital agenda and initiatives to provide our workforce global accessibility to best in class training, said Anthony Del Barto, learning technology manager at BP, in a press statement. The value of data in the workforce is critical, and the Immerse platform allows us to gather the vital information that we need in order to upskill our employees efficiently in an innovative and engaging way. This is both beneficial to us as a company, but also to our staff to ensure theyre getting the best learning and development possible.

Advances are also being made in using VR for soft skills training and the rewards are there for those organisations that choose to adopt this approach. A soft skills study by PwC has found that 40% of VR learners saw an improvement in confidence compared to classroom learners and 35% improvement over e-learners to act on what they learned after training in VR.

As VR technology becomes more usable, affordable and powerful than it already is, and as expertise and experience in developing VR training improves, experts agree that it will become a core part of delivering training across all verticals in the years to come. In fact, IDC estimates that VR training will contribute $294 billion (225 billion) to the global economy by 2030.

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VR technology is constantly improving. By going wireless, improving battery life, creating more natural means of user interaction and generating greater processing power and graphics streaming, even more realistic and immersive training scenarios will be enabled, says Asyran Amin, lead XR engineer at Ministry XR.

Lovell, meanwhile, says the technology will help drive a new age of learning, development and education by delivering a cost-effective, immersive and efficient experience to train people in both hard and soft skills. VR offers unignorable benefits for organisations who want to train large sets of people, remotely and cost-effectively with better outcomes compared to the existing, traditional training formats, he says.

For Camera, VR training holds a wealth of opportunities, but more needs to be done before it can truly become a core part of skills development. Currently, the vast majority of VR learning applications are for technical and behavioural training, she says. In order for it to become more mainstream, it is critical that companies start implementing these solutions at-scale, versus in siloed, one-off situations. At the same time, VR training will become more prevalent as the headsets themselves become more mainstream for consumers.

The more people who have VR devices on-hand, the more opportunities there will be for companies to provide employees with this type of training content, she concludes.

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The major players in the Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets Market are Sony Corporation, Samsung electronics Ltd., HTC Corporation, Google, Inc., Microsoft Corporation, LG Electronics, Inc., Avegant Corporation, Facebook, Fove, Inc., and Oculus VR, LLC.We also need a market analysis section solely dedicated to major players such as where analysts give us an insight into the financial statements of all the major players, along with product benchmarking and SWOT analysis. Global Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets market with great emphasis on its market share, recent developments, business overview, market served, and growth strategies.

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Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets Market: Research Methodology

Coherent Market Insights follows a comprehensive research methodology focused on providing the most precise market analysis. The company leverages a data triangulation model which helps company to gauge the market dynamics and provide accurate estimates. Key components of the research methodologies followed for all our market reports include:

As part of Primary research, our analysts interviewed a number of primary sources from the demand and supply sides of the global Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets Market. This helped them to obtain both quantitative and qualitative data and information. On the demand side of the global Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets Market are end-users, whereas on the supply side are distributors, vendors, and manufacturers.

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During our Secondary research, we collect information from different sources such as databases, regulatory bodies, gold and silver-standard websites, articles by recognized authors, certified publications, white papers, investor presentations and press releases of companies, and annual reports.

COVID-19 Impact on Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets Market

This research study also includes the analyses related to the impact of Covid-19 on the Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets Market. The global impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may significantly affect the growth of the Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets Market in near future. As per the experts viewpoints, it affects the global economy in 3 major ways:

Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets Market: Regional Analysis

This part of the report includes detailed information on the market in various regions. Each region offers different scope for markets because every region has different government policies and other factors. The regions included in this report areNorth America, Europe, The Asia Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa. Information about the different areas helps the reader to understand better the global market.

Complete SWOT Analysis of the Global Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets Market

SWOT analysisis one technique that is quite that helps to gain an insight into the past and find a solution for the benefit of current or future blemish, useful for existing companies as well as the new plan. SWOT-analysis helps reduce weaknesses while maximizing the strong side of the company. Its can also be used when it comes to achieving certain goals in non-profit organizations or private companies. This tool can be used to make a reconsideration during the study.

Importance of SWOT Analysis in Business :

The mostimportantpart of aSWOT analysisis to improve the viability of your company.Importantthreats coupled with a company weakness typically put at risk your companys future, and theSWOT analysisidentifies these risks. You can eliminate internal weaknesses by assigning company resources to fix the problems.

Factors of SWOT-analysis will help businesses to understand their strengths to the threat that what is the strength of the company and what could be a threat or a risk in the future. With the help of SWOT analysis, companies can increase the chances of success and reduce the possibility of failure.

When the company conducted a SWOT analysis they need to know what are the weak points of the company. Then, managers can provide training to employees who help the company to improve employee performance.

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When managers know each and every aspect of the company from strength to threats. Time strategy formulation becomes easy. It helps companies to formulate a strategy.

It helps the company to motivate employees because when companies must know their weaknesses are trying to remove and send employees. When employees know their weaknesses are also working hard to eliminate the weaknesses

It helps companies to identify potential opportunities. SWOT analysis company because when they come to know about any potential opportunities that can help a business to grow.

Competitor analysis is critical to any marketing plan and SWOT analysis provides a perfect way to do this. Typically, PEST analysis is done before a SWOT analysis to provide details on opportunities and threats sections. Once you have a complete SWOT diagram you and your competitors, you can make better decisions about your marketing plan.

PESTEL Analysis :

APESTEL analysisor more recently named PESTELE is a framework or tool used by marketers to analyse and monitor the macro-environmental (external marketing environment) factors that have an impact on an organisation. The result of which is used to identify threats and weaknesses which are used in a SWOTanalysis.

Opportunities come in various forms, then the value of doing a PESTEL analysis. PESTEL stands for:

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How SWOT Analysis Is Important for Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets Market ?

There are three steps to follow in this analysis.

In this stage, and we collect all the information regarding the first two internal factors, strengths and weaknesses. However, this information collection can be done in a number of different ways. One-to-one interview or a group discussion can be carried to gather information. There will be a number of different views, questions, and issues related to these elements.

Here, we can make a list of all the opportunities that it may encounter in the future. It can make another list of all the future possible threats within the organization.

In this stage, the plan of action will have carried out to meet these opportunities and to secure the company from the threats. In this stage, the organization makes sure that they can maintain the strengths, change or stop the weaknesses, prioritize opportunism and minimize threats.

If you are not doing a SWOT analysis for your business or new start-ups you will face some of these Problems or Issues:

Appendix

Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets Market report gives you details about the market research finding and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain a competitive advantage. Supported by comprehensive primary as well as secondary research, the Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets Market the report is then verified using expert advice, quality check and final review. The market data was analyzed and foretasted using market dynamics and consistent models.

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Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets Market - Impact Of Covid-19 And Benchmarking. - Market Research Posts

New Jersey, United States,- The most recent Augmented Reality (AR) & Virtual Reality (VR) in Healthcare Sales Market Research study includes some significant activities of the current market size for the worldwide Augmented Reality (AR) & Virtual Reality (VR) in Healthcare Sales market. It presents a point by point analysis dependent on the exhaustive research of the market elements like market size, development situation, potential opportunities, and operation landscape and trend analysis. This report centers around the Augmented Reality (AR) & Virtual Reality (VR) in Healthcare Sales business status, presents volume and worth, key market, product type, consumers, regions, and key players.

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Virtual Reality gives employees the chance to soak up information and learn the error of their ways in a safe setting. Or identify hidden talents they can use to benefit the business and boost on-the-job productivity. But the goal is to give them the skills and experiences they need in VR environments. Then turn them loose in the workplace to apply what they learned. So, how do you tip the payroll scales to give them more hours on the job and less in ILT courses? Here are 6 insider secrets to lower training expenses and make long training sessions a thing of the past.

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Things get out of hand when you try to squeeze too much content into one online training session or activity. Focus on a single skill or task in your Virtual Reality employee training simulations. Give employees the chance to experience the skill firsthand and see how it relates to their job duties. For

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Virtual Reality Employee Training: Tips To Limit Costs - The Union Journal

New Jersey, United States,- Market Research Intellect has added the latest research on the Virtual Reality (VR) Software Market which offers a concise outline of the market valuation, industry size, SWOT analysis, revenue approximation, and the regional outlook of this business vertical. The report precisely features the key opportunities and challenges faced by contenders of this industry and presents the existing competitive setting and corporate strategies enforced by the Virtual Reality (VR) Software market players.

The Virtual Reality (VR) Software market report is an amalgamation of the key trends influencing the industry growth with respect to the competitive scenario and regions where the business has been successful. Furthermore, the study discusses the various restraints of the industry and uncovers the opportunities that will set the growth course. In addition, a holistic examination of the industry changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are also tagged in the report to aid investors and other participants in making well-informed decisions.

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Unveiling a brief about the Virtual Reality (VR) Software market competitive scope:

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Virtual Reality (VR) Software Market, By Type

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Market Research Intellect provides syndicated and customized research reports to clients from various industries and organizations with the aim of delivering functional expertise. We provide reports for all industries including Energy, Technology, Manufacturing and Construction, Chemicals and Materials, Food and Beverage, and more. These reports deliver an in-depth study of the market with industry analysis, the market value for regions and countries, and trends that are pertinent to the industry.

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Virtual Reality (VR) Software Market Size, Global Future Trend, Segmentation, Business Growth, Top Key Players, Opportunities and Forecast to 2027 -...

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Augmented Reality (AR) & Virtual Reality (VR) in Healthcare Industry Market Opportunity, Demand, recent trends, Major Driving Factors and Business...

A new online platform using 3D and virtual reality technology has been developed to allow remote building inspections to take place.

The six-month project at the University of Strathclyde uses state-of-the-art algorithms, virtual reality and image processing techniques to monitor the construction phase of buildings.

The platform will create a 3D environment of a building and reduce the number of physical inspections from quantity surveyors and health and safety inspectors required.

Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the necessity to work remotely means the technology could help solve problems arising from not being able to visit the site since remote working became the norm during the coronavirus pandemic.

READ MORE:Scotland Covid-19 cases rise by 48 with no deaths

Researchers say the technology will meanfewer defects occur in the long term as well as improving productivity and quality overall.

It has now also received 35,000 from the Construction Scotland Innovation Centre i-Con Challenge.

Dr Andrew Agapiou is a senior lecturer in the universitys department of architecture and lead researcher on the project.

He said: The ability to accurately detect errors and defects in remote and hard-to-access buildings has significant value for the organisations.

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In many situations, these structures are inspected extensively using digital cameras to capture images which can be analysed offline by experts who study the footage in detail.

The use of advanced photogrammetry and artificial intelligence technologies will help data gathering and analysis with minimum human interaction with buildings.

The project partners are the Scottish Government Building Standards Division, Sublime, Robert Gordon University, Balfour Beatty Construction, BDP, Anomalous Technologies, Scottish Futures Trust Hub-Cos Partnership, Highlands Council and the Construction Scotland Innovation Centre.

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3D virtual reality building inspections developed to aid remote working during the pandemic - HeraldScotland