Using the right software for VR hardware has a direct impact on the quality and experience of virtual reality. Choosing proper software optimizes the use of hardware resources, improves graphics rendering, minimizes latency, and ensures a smooth and immersive experience. Without the right software, the hardware would always perform below its capabilities and detract from the overall experience.
In this interview, Rob Pereira, Senior Sales Manager at Pico XR, tells us how Virtual Reality training is revolutionizing the way we learn and develop. It's all about choosing the right software for VR hardware and how Pico XR is tackling the challenges for optimal training results.
RP: VR and XR are very exciting topics that you can no longer get around. Today's world is fast-paced and highly polarising. Many things cannot be fully grasped. Virtual Reality makes many things visible: from radiation protection to hygiene topics, complex learning content can be broken down from a high-level macro view, down to the smallest detail, speeding up and accelerating learning at the same time.
VR thus allows for an important change of perspective and is exactly what we need to actually convey content and learning content to people in an understandable way, even if this content is not intuitive or visible in the real world.
RP: Compatibility is an important keyword here. Not all virtual software is compatible with all VR hardware. Different hardware manufacturers use different technologies and standards. It is essential to ensure smooth integration and interaction between hardware and software.
Likewise, the right software also ensures security and stability through regular updates, and each VR application requires specific functionalities and adaptations. The right software offers a wide range of functions, tools, and customization options to meet the needs and goals of the user. In the Pico Business App Store, corporate and institutional customers in particular can find software for their field of application easily, quickly, and securely. Of course, 3Spin Learning is right at the forefront.
Rob Pereira, Pico XR
RP: There are many. To sum it up, VR training is more cost-effective, faster learning means more throughput and it saves space and resources. There is also less risk, better learning opportunities, standardization of processes and quality control can be documented through metrics.
Immersive learning allows the learner to be completely immersed in a new world and perhaps even experience gamified processes there. It is scientifically proven that engaged and motivated employees learn better and retain learning content better. This also leads to stronger employee loyalty.
On the other hand, employees can only improve their skills if they can be measured. VR makes automated measurement possible - for example, measuring the frequency of hand movements or the correct sequence. Combined with eye tracking, this is an ideal way for trainers and learners to really improve on specific points and understand how to improve rather than just repeating something over and over again.
This is an exciting topic. I have worked in the field of applied neuroscience for more than fifteen years and I am passionate about the topic of what actually affects the brain. Virtual Reality is an interesting field here because users are cut off from the outside world in the virtual world.
Learning in a virtual classroom changes the memories and feelings you associate with a particular situation. Here, virtual reality offers an excellent and incredibly efficient way to change the brain and create new neural pathways.
RP: This is always an emotional issue. First of all, people are afraid because they don't know something. In my experience, the best thing is to simply try out new developments. Having low hurdles and easy entry points helps. Both from the software and the hardware side.
You don't always have to build a nuclear power plant, but in the beginning, it's enough to get a feeling for these new virtual realities. Often, simple scenarios such as going to the car, opening the car doors, and putting on safety clothing virtually are enough to generate an understanding and take away the fear of the technology.
For us as hardware manufacturers, there's also the additional component of the hardware itself. On the one hand, we have high-end products with eye, face, and hand tracking, with which you can move freely in the room via a multiplayer experience.
On the other hand, many training courses are simply still conventional training courses in which twenty professionals sit in a room. In these learning scenarios, VR glasses with simple controllers are sufficient for the first introduction. Here, the user experience is simpler and the inhibition threshold to try out such a device is lower.
RP: A really interesting case that also shows the great potential of VR is the work in the nuclear power plants that are now being dismantled. Radiation protection is invisible for the time being and cannot be easily practiced in the traditional way. With Virtual Reality, however, it can be made visible and practiced in a safe environment.
In this specific project, eye tracking was also used to measure eye movements and attention. The training helped to understand when and why a task was done correctly or incorrectly and what the distractions were. Distractions can lead to critical problems in such high-risk environments. Learners can go back to the training several times and understand at which point they looked in which direction and thus understand why certain exercise components went wrong. Trainers can also measure the cognitive workload and thus identify moments in the process where there is an increased risk. This can then be targeted or the process can be adjusted.
RP: We at Pico are first and foremost a hardware manufacturer. In other words, we build these devices for Virtual Reality and make them available to our customers. But we can't show our devices without the corresponding software or software partners.
When it comes to the software partner, high quality is important to us. 3spin Learning is a top partner because you can do two different things:
This is interesting for us because it allows us to cover many different customer areas - for example, schools or even companies.
RP: We work closely with 3spin Learning on different levels – depending on the use case and the customer. Our collaboration between hardware and software solution providers is based on a lot of trust on one side and technical support on the other. We can trust 3spin Learning to find a solution for our customers.
Often our customers come to us with a specific problem that could be solved in different ways. Here, 3spin Learning offers either an individual solution or the use of their all-in-one learning platform to create learning content themselves. Of course, this makes it easy for the customer.
Thank you very much, dear Rob, for the interesting conversation!
As Senior Sales Manager, Rob Pereira works at Pico XR, a ByteDance company, making VR accessible, safe to use a,nd easy to integrate and scale. A self-proclaimed nerd for technology, research, human behaviour, and innovation, he has spent the last fifteen years in the Enterprise segment in Applied Neuroscience and is on fire for the unique possibilities VR offers.
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