Create your own Interactive VR Project: Varwin XRMS

How do we use Virtual Reality (VR)?

What is VR?

For more information, see: https://sturiel.com/virtual-reality/

What is the benefit of using VR?

• Cut Costs

VR allows saving on expensive equipment, logistics and additional by recreating objects, locations and scenarios in virtual space.

• Save Time

VR speeds up staff training and education processes and saves time on travel by recreating any object and scenario.

• More Efficient

VR boasts unprecedented immersion and eliminates most risks associated with training.

What is the future of VR?

Using VR: for Education

How does Gen Z learn?

Gen Z’s learning traits:

• Self-serve learners
• Visually oriented generation
• They want to convert skills in cash, while millennials prioritize culture over money
• But, Gen Z lacks soft-skills like collaboration, time management and problem-solving skills

How does VR play a part in Education?

Benjamin Franklin once said, “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” This quote perfectly sums up the relationship between VR and education. Virtual reality makes a learning experience more engaging, which helps students learn faster and develop more practical skills. At the same time, VR makes it possible to dive into complex topics like robotics that would not be accessible to students otherwise due to high costs.

Collaborative VR tools

Example: Helping remote students feel more connected and less isolated

Tools for real-world learning

Example: Experience online tours to remote locations, or even non-existing areas

Online class-rooms

Example: Lab works in chemistry, physics, medicine and soft skills

VR as discipline

Example: Varwin course for kids and college students

VR development is no longer a complex mystery now that we have special tools for simplifying and streamlining the process. Today students can create VR projects without any special programming skills. The case with ROBBO (see example below) shows that other fields and technologies can also be explored through VR.

There has never been a better time to start taking advantage of virtual reality in the field of education. As Malcolm X said, “tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today”. And thanks to VR, preparing for tomorrow is now extremely affordable and exciting.

Learn VR and Block Coding at the same time!

Blockly, an open-source software from Google, is a visual code editor that does not require programming skills. It allows writing program scripts by connecting visual blocks.

Thanks to the drag-and-drop system and the Blockly visual language that the Varwin platform offers, students can build their VR projects quickly and easily.

Learning how to build a VR project and learning coding with Blockly are useful skills for students as they are going to witness huge technological progress during their careers. VR is also exciting for the next generation, and providing students the opportunity to work with VR pays off with their involvement and interest in this technology.

Example: Using VR to program a robot (ROBBO)

According to Statista, the robotics market will reach $500 billion U.S. dollars by 2025. Robots are expected to replace humans in many routine tasks, so learning how to program robots can guarantee students an interesting and well-paid job in the future. However, most students do not have access to robots as their families and educational institutions cannot afford to buy them. These students, therefore, can’t learn how to program robots, and they miss out on the skills that could open them so many doors in the future.

Fortunately, students can get the same experience programming a robot in VR instead. ROBBO, a company that provides equipment for teaching robotics, organized such a project for high school students during the International Project School at Innopolis University. They asked a team of 3 high school students to program a robot in VR, and the team only needed 9 days to successfully complete the project. The robot that the team programmed could move along a specific trajectory as well as grab an object and move it to another place. Students used the Varwin platform for this project, which allowed them to streamline VR development. Even though none of them were familiar with the platform before, students quickly learned how to build projects on it.

Using VR: for Business

There are many VR applications in business that will save costs, and generate more profit from new revenue streams, and productivity improvements.

For example:

Using VR: for Business (Healthcare)

Challenges of the medicine of the future:

• Ageing population: we live longer and it is the main challenge for modern medicine.
• Digital medicine is the only way to serve the growing demand.
• There will be larger population of people with mental diseases.
• Problem: Lack of skilled healthcare professionals who are capable of working with hi-end equipment and software.
• Solution: VR can alleviate many of these challenges as we shall demonstrate with a few examples below.

Examples of VR applications in Healthcare:

• Rehabilitation and exposure therapy (Example: Neuro-rehab after stroke)
• Doctors training (Example: Surgery training)
• Pain management (Example: Cedars Sinai lab for pain management)
• Visualizations (Example: Visual analysis of 3D CT and MRI content)

Virtual Reality is used to train & support healthcare professionals, change lives and heal patients:

1. MEDICAL TRAINING

Virtual Reality can transport you inside the human body – to access & view areas that otherwise would be impossible to reach.

2. PAIN MANAGEMENT

A study by the University of Washington Seattle and the UW Harborview Burn Centre showed that full VR immersion for those undergoing physical therapy after a skin graft acted as a distraction and subsequently reduced pain levels for the patients.

3. REHABILITATION

VR has also been shown to be effective in speeding up recovery time. Allowing the patient to do their prescribed daily exercises in a virtual environment makes the activity more fun, keeps the patient focused, and helps them keep their spirits up during what can be a long recovery period.

4. MENTAL HEALTH & PSYCHOLOGICAL THERAPY

VR’s unique ability to transport you somewhere else can be used to create powerful simulations of the scenarios in which psychological difficulties occur. Situations that are impractical or impossible to recreate — flying, for example, can be conjured at the click of a mouse. The in-situ coaching can now be delivered in the consulting room, with the simulations graded in difficulty and repeated as often as necessary.

5. PREVENTATIVE MEDICINE

Virtual reality is used to educate patients about positive lifestyle choices, such as stopping smoking, moderate alcohol intake, healthy eating and exercise. There is an emphasis on educating people to make positive changes about their health which will reduce the risk of illnesses, many of which are preventative.

Using VR: for Business (Logistics)

Virtual Reality is used to reduce injuries and equipment breakdowns by 20-40% and optimize training expenses:

1. WAREHOUSE SAFETY TRAINING IN VR

Problem:

When hiring a new employee, the company may need to train them to work on specific equipment or explain the actions in typical situations. A mentor or a teacher are usually allocated for such training. Normally this is another employee who gets distracted from their core responsibilities.

Solution:

• We simulate the necessary equipment and / or situations
• We create instructions and practical exercises
• We add a built-in algorithm for assessing completed tasks
• Now the new employees takes a full-fledged training course by themselves and receives an assessment of the result

2. DANGEROUS ENVIRONMENT

Problem:

In a classroom it is impossible to recreate dangerous emergency situations: fire, explosion, roof collapse, fire in a warehouse, etc.
Training takes place with the help of manuals and videos. Lack of training in realistic conditions reduces the quality of acquired skills.

Solution:

• Reproduce emergency situations in VR
• Trainees can act in tandem with the bot
• The employees receive an immersing training of handling emergency situations in realistic conditions

Using VR: for Business (Retail)

Using VR: for Business (Business Training)

1. REALISTIC SPECIALIST TECHNICAL SUPPORT AND REPAIR MANUALS

Problem:

Manufacturers of dimensional equipment may encounter difficulties in technical support. Companies need to send specialists, even in the case of simple breakdowns, while the equipment is located in remote areas.

Solution:

• We will reproduce the location and the equipment in virtual reality.
• Company can license VR trained specialists to repair its equipment or use the training to improve and perfect the skills of its in-house technicians.
• With Varwin, companies can update the training without future involvement of VR developers

2. NOW YOU CAN TRAIN SPECIALISTS REMOTELY, ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD

Problem:

When training employees, you may need to teach them skills in working with equipment located in a remote location. This necessity entails logistics costs.

Solution:

We will reproduce the location and the equipment in virtual reality.

3. NOW YOU CAN TRAIN EMPLOYEES IN AN IMMERSIVE ENVIRONMENT WITH SAME WEATHER CONDITIONS THEY FACE IN REAL LIFE

Problem:

When making training for employees, it may be necessary to practice actions in difficult weather conditions: for example, inspecting a ship in a snowstorm. In the office, these conditions cannot be reproduced.

Solution:

• We reproduce the required weather conditions in virtual reality
• We will create training instructions and practical tasks considering weather conditions

Using VR: for Business (Recruitment)

NOW YOU CAN TEST THE SKILLS OF THE CANDIDATE RIGHT ON THE INTERVIEW

Problem:

HR employees are not always able to test the practical skills of candidates: for example, working with the equipment or handling emergency situations.

Solution:

• We will create test tasks in virtual reality (how to disassemble and repair equipment, put out the fire or how to find violations)
• We will integrate the knowledge verification algorithm

Quickly create, own, reuse and share your Interactive VR content!

Introducing Varwin’s XRMS(Unity-based 3D & VR management system)

Varwin platform is an environment for creating, editing and utilizing projects in virtual reality (VR). This is a fast and easy solution for creating VR projects with no programming skills. Such projects can then be managed and supported using the company’s own resources, without third party participation. The packaged solution includes Varwin RMS (Reality Management System) App with a built-in VR client and Varwin SDK.

Components of VARWIN XRMS

Varwin RMS app

Varwin RMS app is installed on computers of everyone participating in a project. Varwin app functions in three modes:

• Edit mode
• Preview mode
• View mode

All users get access to:

• Library of scene templates to set projects in,
• Library of objects to place inside the scene templates.
• The built-in VR client is a part of the Varwin platform and is installed simultaneously.

Learn more: Varwin RMS App

Varwin SDK

In addition to the content provided with the libraries, Varwin users can create their own scene templates and objects. In order to do that, a Varwin user will have to:

• Install Unity development platform (2018.4.1f1),
• Install Varwin SDK, development tool tailored for Varwin platform

Those tools allow to create scene templates and objects for Varwin platform:

• without third party participation (experience with Unity required)
• with the support of any Unity programmer (over 4 million programmers worldwide.)

Learn more: Varwin SDK

Blockly

Built-in visual editor allowing to build scenario and logic for projects with no programmer skills.

Learn more: Working with Blockly

Why do some VR Projects fail and how to avoid it?

Virtual reality offers a variety of solutions for businesses and schools that enhance their business processes or lesson plans. Yet even the companies and schools that are ready for innovative solutions often don’t understand how a VR project could help them. Moreover, they don’t know how to use the project or how to measure its efficiency and cost effectiveness.

VR allows us to create an impressive 3D world but it makes no sense to implement new technology without a set of rules about the goals it aims to accomplish. Just like any other technology, VR should solve a specific problem.

What should you do to make sure your VR project serves you best? Here are some simple steps that St. Uriel Education recommends:

• Get Yourself Familiar with VR

It is always a good idea to explore what VR has to offer before starting a project to better determine the goal and make sure your project lives up to your expectations. Whether it is a VR game, VR lesson or corporate training, any VR experience can help you get familiar with this technology.

One of the easiest ways to dive into VR and its project opportunities is to contact St. Uriel Education. Our VR experts will explore your needs with you, and recommend the best VR solution for your case.

We can also develop an effective methodology of VR project development and implementation, including recommending ways to define efficiency metrics and measure results. Such an approach helps you get familiar with the range of opportunities that VR offers and lets you explore the possible outcomes for implementing VR for your business.

• Determine the Goal

Zig Ziglar once said, “A goal properly set is halfway reached.” Before developing a VR project, ask yourself what you want to accomplish with it. Technology is made to simplify our lives, but we have to be the ones to set goals for it.

Example: Do you want to attract new clients and achieve higher sales or do you want to improve your employee training and get a more highly trained staff? Think everything through, then set a concrete goal with numbers and a deadline.
Determining what you want and how you want it done is the key to the success of your project.

Companies and schools often don’t think through the goal of a VR project. They want to be innovative and trendy, and implementing VR is just a way for them to show off. While it’s true that companies are perceived as innovative if they use new technologies, VR offers much more than a cool image. Since VR is quite a significant investment, it’s wise to consider all the benefits before taking the leap.

• Use VR CMS

Another reason why companies give up on VR is that while their business processes are always changing, VR projects can’t reflect all of these changes. There is usually a time for edits and client evaluation right after the project is completed, but if business changes happen a year later, for example, the client would have to pay extra to get the project modified by professionals.

The solution to this problem is content management systems for VR. Just like we can build websites by ourselves with WordPress. St. Uriel’s partner Varwin provides a platform that allow clients to modify their projects without the help of professionals. Varwin is also great for professional training and interactive tours thanks to its realistic scenes and objects. Take advantage of Varwin tools in order to use your VR projects to their full potential.

• Define Efficiency Metrics Beforehand

Having a clear goal for building the project is great, but how can you determine its efficiency after the project is done? This is another issue companies may experience difficulties with. Efficiency metrics should be discussed before the project is built as they could require some adjustments to the project.

In the case of VR employee training, efficiency could be measured by testing employees’ skills, and if we’re talking about VR museum exhibits, we could use surveys to measure visitor satisfaction.

A famous saying goes, “What gets measured gets done.” When a client doesn’t know how to measure the efficiency of their VR project, they cannot tell whether the project was successful for them. Again, if doing it by yourself seems too daunting, you can always contact St. Uriel Education.

Remember: Implement VR not because it’s trendy but because of the maximum benefit you could get from a VR project. Great research before the project could save you money and time fixing mistakes down the road. Get familiar with VR in advance, determine the goal and efficiency metrics, and use tools that simplify VR management.

Now is the time to take advantage of virtual reality like never before. Implement it wisely and it will help your business and school flourish!