Why XR works for enterprise training (and beyond)

Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality provides immersive training experiences comparable to live, instructor-led training in numerous respects, albeit often with differing objectives and practical applications. At a high-level, once developed and shared, VR, AR, or MR training can be done repeatedly, from anywhere in the world, without the physical risks or attendant costs of in-person training.
From the features of VR, AR, and MR content and what they offer, to the various ways businesses are using them, let’s explore the benefits of distributing XR content throughout an organization.

XR content features

Not only is the technology state-of-the-art, but so is the educational content itself. Premium VR training, for instance, is developed by subject matter experts who combine realistic narratives with appropriate curriculum and present it in an extremely accessible, entirely virtual format.
Learning time and comprehension are improved through immersive experiences where people are engaged on multiple sensory levels. In one study it was reported that teaching through an educational text document resulted in scores of 87%, compared to scores of 94.5% when the same information was delivered via VR. 
Among participants, 90% said they would feel valued if an employer invested in VR tech for training purposes.
At its foundation, VR (and other XR) content is meant to provide an immersive experience for its users, providing them with high-quality engagement opportunities that otherwise would be difficult to replicate. An ideal enterprise VR/XR platform delivers value with each experience, and should provide highly useful functionality, such as the following:

• Fully immersive and interactive 3D imagery
• Multi-user capability 
• Scenario randomization
• Replicated physics and real-world tools
• Simulated behavioral consequences
• AAA game quality photorealistic environments
• Real-time reporting and data analytics

How VR and other XR tools are being used

VR and other XR training can improve processes and engagement for various enterprise needs, including recruiting, onboarding, field training, and even monitoring equipment or developing new products and machinery.
There are many examples of how AR/VR are being used across the value chains of various industries. This includes energy and utilities, construction, and healthcare sectors.
According to a survey from Grid Raster, 91% of tech enterprises are already using or are planning to adopt augmented or virtual reality technology. The survey found the following top use cases of AR/VR among enterprises that have already adopted it:

• 26% use it to train employees
• 60% use it to virtually supplement labor on production floors
• 53% use it for conducting virtual customer visits
• 53% use it for virtual design and product engineering

Why VR and XR are ideal for enterprise training distribution

As many companies adopt VR training technology, they often hit barriers that keep them from implementing the training across their entire company. With a VR/AR platform, businesses can deploy, use, and scale XR training content with more accessibility than ever before.
An XR distribution and analytics platform works similarly to a content management system, in that you can manage your own existing content, but also license new, “off-the-shelf” content, or content developed by third parties. With easier access  to VR, AR, or MR content, you can customize and assign training programs (and numerous other XR applications), as well as track training engagement and performance. This can all be done within one secure, user-friendly, cloud-based control center.

VR, AR, and MR platforms make content instantly accessible

Once you have VR or other XR content that is ready to distribute, you can create, edit, and manage permissions for each employee’s user profile.
Permission-based content can be provisioned to thousands of individual headsets or other devices within a fleet. From there, each user verifies their profile through a simple authentication process, ensuring the right content securely goes to the right people, right away.
Users can then download and start using VR, AR, or MR content instantly, from any location, making it easier than ever to reach all corners of an enterprise with properly developed and monitored resources, empowering administrators to “turn on” or “turn off” XR titles with a simple point-and-click process.

Scale VR training and other applications to improve performance

With access to VR training and other XR applications from anywhere in the world, employees can be immersed in interactive, realistic 3D environments, as individuals or as teams.
For training, no longer is travel required for instructors or trainees, and high-risk exercises can be practiced without danger to employees, improving worker safety and reducing liability. VR training and other scenarios can be randomized to mimic the unpredictability of daily work or repeated to solidify previous training and enhance depth of knowledge. 
These experiential learning opportunities save costs and time, and improve productivity and communication, which then improves the overall health and profitability of a business.
According to a 2019-2020 report, 93% of enterprise users said that VR had a positive impact on their business. In the GridRaster survey, 61% said leveraging AR/VR has resulted in a 20% cost savings. That’s serious money.
As employees, clients, and even customers train, communicate, or collaborate using VR, AR, or MR content, enterprises can track their engagement with subject matter using real-time, in-depth session data using a custom dashboard. Over time, that data can be leveraged to better understand how an organization is interacting with its audience — and where it could use improvement.

How can you optimize the enterprise distribution of your VR, AR, or MR content?

Widespread use of extended reality applications can lead to greater alignment across all aspects of an enterprise’s organizational needs. With the PIXO platform, you can master consistent and widespread training, as well as things like pre-construction visualization, immersive simulations of surgeries and other medical simulations, virtual tours to, say, a hotel, or a company headquarters — and everything in between. 
If you’re interested in learning more about XR content distribution for enterprise, reach out to us and let’s start a conversation. 

Request a demo today.

See how Apex can manage your XR content globally with one cloud-based solution.

Request Demo

A VR content distribution solution makes training more efficient and effective

The opportunity to easily deploy, use, and manage Virtual and Augmented Reality for training helps your workforce more efficiently access and benefit from the best active learning experiences available today.
A 2018 University of Maryland study analyzed whether people learn better through virtual, immersive environments, or more traditional platforms, such as computers and tablets. Researchers found that people remember information better if it’s presented to them in an immersive, virtual environment.
The benefits of VR training include fully immersive and interactive 3D photorealistic environments where multiple users can repeatedly interact within educational scenarios, from anywhere in the world.
These scenarios can be randomized to mimic the unpredictability of daily work. VR scenarios also allow for employees to learn skills and safety training in high-risk or high-cost situations that would otherwise be challenging to recreate in the real world.
With VR training also comes real-time reporting, data analytics, and immediate feedback to track and improve employee performance.

Optimize training with VR content management 

According to a PwC report, more than a third of US manufacturers surveyed either already use VR/AR technology or plan to do so within the next three years. In the report, about one-third of respondents not yet adopting VR/AR technology say they’re sitting on the fence because they have yet to identify a practical application, 31% think the technology isn’t ready for mainstream use, and 20% say it’s cost prohibitive. 
These hesitations show the need for streamlined, affordable VR content management.
With easier and more cost-effective implementation, VR training increases employee engagement, retention, productivity and risk mitigation, saving time and money, making its benefits quantifiable. Through these benefits and savings in travel and training costs, the expenses to implement and distribute VR content are recovered, according to Deloitte.
Your company can optimize training programs with a VR CMS platform where you can curate and customize content and manage VR training programs in a central platform, with widespread, secure employee access. This makes VR content easier than ever to deploy and scale, meeting the growing demand for enterprise content.

Content curation and customization

VR and AR content is becoming increasingly accessible for more businesses. With certain VR platforms, (such as PIXO’s), companies can license “off-the-shelf” VR content from a growing library, distribute private or third-party-created content, or enhance content using a set of development tools. 
On the supply side, developers can even gain revenue and exposure from content they’ve created by licensing it to other businesses as well.
All of this has a “democratizing” effect on extended reality technologies, allowing quicker access for more people to more XR content at a more affordable monthly rate, rather than paying high-six or even seven-figure sums for custom content development each time new training programs are needed.
In the near future, drag-and-drop content-creation tools that allow for customizing XR content without advanced technical knowledge will become possible, empowering businesses to more easily adopt and expand VR training programs for various operational needs.
And when it comes to that high-dollar, custom, proprietary content — the kind of content you probably wouldn’t want your competitors to see — VR and AR experiences and information can also be shared securely across even the most widespread enterprises through the right VR CMS platform.

A central platform to manage VR training programs

A VR platform provides content management tools for customizing and distributing VR training resources to thousands of employees and devices.
Within one cloud-based, “point-and-click” control center, you can create, edit, and manage permissions for each employee’s user profile. From there you can share original, curated, or internally developed VR content with the appropriate users.
With unique profiles in one central portal, you can track in-depth, real-time data on individual trainee performance, gaining critical insight into what employees know and what they need to work on. This can then be used to adjust training programs to meet trainees’ differentiated needs. In some cases, performance feedback can even be given directly to employees during their training.

Simple and secure employee access

With content management comes a streamlined VR experience at every stage, from content creation to actual training.
Using a VR platform, permission-based content can be provisioned to individual headsets or other devices within a fleet. From there, each user verifies their profile through a simple authentication process, ensuring the right content securely goes to the right people, right away. Users can download and start using VR content for instant access to training, from any location, at any time.

Make VR training work for you – improve overall operations

A VR content management system can help you optimize your investment in VR training programs, taking you beyond the proof-of-concept phase to a point where you can grow your business using the VR tools you’ve put in place.

Importantly, with a VR and AR CMS, the applications go well beyond training alone. With extended reality, you can improve not only your training, but operations across other departments and aspects of the business.
The PIXO VR platform empowers businesses and organizations to access, distribute, and manage all of their XR content within one, secure, cloud-based system — easily.
If you want to take the next step in optimizing your VR, AR, and MR content, start a conversation today and learn how we can help.

Request a demo today.

See how Apex can manage your XR content globally with one cloud-based solution.

Request Demo

Request a demo today.

See how Apex can manage your XR content globally with one cloud-based solution.

Request Demo

Degrees of freedom: the 6 axes explained 

“Dof” stands for “degrees of freedom.” The number attached to it stands for how many different axes are being tracked. There are three main axes (translational), and three secondary axes (rotational). A 3dof VR experience will limit you to one set, rotational or translational, but not both. A 6dof experience allows for both.

Translational axes

The translational axes are the most straightforward, so we’ll start there. Without going too far down the VR development rabbit hole, for the purposes of this example, we will be using what’s known as a “Z-up” coordinate system. (The axes can, and do change, across various applications.)
Imagine yourself — or feel free to physically do this if you’ve got enough room, just don’t collide with any bystanders! — looking straight ahead, and keeping your face turned forward and motionless at all times. The movements you are about to take will mimic the three translational axes.
Step to the right, and then to the left — in a straight line. This is the first directional axis, known as “x”. This side-to-side movement is commonly known as “strafing.”
Now, step forward, without changing your posture. Then step back. This is the second directional axis, typically known as “y.” You can move closer to something, or farther away, (also in a straight line). This forward and backward movement is commonly known as “surging.”
Finally, crouch down, then stand up. This is the third directional axis, typically known as “z”, where you’re moving lower in relation to something, or higher. This up and down movement is commonly known as “elevating.”

Rotational axes

Let’s look at rotational movements. Once again, imagine yourself looking straight forward, and putting your arms out like the wings of a plane, palms facing downward. You will only move your head and upper body while your feet remain still. The movements you are about to take will mimic the three rotational axes.
Looking straight ahead, (the “x” axis), tilt your head to the right, as if you’d put your right ear on your right shoulder while letting your right arm drop and the left one rise. Then tilt your head to the left again, letting your right arm rise back up as the left drops. This is rotational movement on the x-axis, and is commonly known as “rolling”.
Next, turn your head to look to the left, and allow your waist to twist to the left as well until your right arm points the same way as your feet. Then turn your head back to the right, twisting the other way, so your left arm points the same direction as your feet. This is rotational movement on the y-axis, and is commonly known as “yawing.”
Finally, drop your chin to look at the floor, while bending forward slightly at the waist. Your arms will stay straight out on either side, but your palms will face behind you. Straighten, and then look up at the ceiling, leaning back slightly at the waist as your palms face in front of you. This is rotational movement on the z-axis, and is commonly known as “pitching.”
6dof VR setups combine both the translational movements and the rotational movements to create a more immersive experience.
[content_block id=21218 slug=learn-more-about-pixo-vr-training-cta]

Advantages of 6dof over 3dof

In VR, various 3dof experiences can be useful for limited applications that don’t require full immersion, such as a simple driver’s ed program designed to test reaction times for braking. This may get the point across, but it results in a very “flat” experience.
For a fully immersive VR experience, 6dof can allow you to walk around an item in a 360-degree circle, bend over and view it from the top down — or crouch down and view it from the bottom up. This kind of positional tracking leads to a much more engaging experience, which is critical to realistic simulation such as a firefighting simulation, where freer movement and manipulation of objects inside the environment is required.
Most of the less expensive types of VR technology in the past only implemented 3dof, because the process to track rotational movements was easier and less costly than tracking translational movements.
Currently, 6dof enabled VR systems are considerably more expensive than 3dof, but the price is dropping as the technology becomes simpler and cheaper to replicate. Eventually, it is anticipated that most VR experiences will feature 6dof, which allows many more options for VR-based training and simulations.
So, there you have it. Now you understand the difference between 3dof and 6dof, and you may have even gotten a little exercise in the process! ‍

Further Reading:

Everything You Need to Know About 6dof and Standalone VR
PIXO VR’s Guide to 6dof and the Oculus Quest

Industries:

Construction                      Manufacturing                     Energy & Utilities

Understanding ‘degrees of freedom’

In a VR setup, there are six possible directions or ‘degrees of freedom’ (abbreviated as “dof”). In other words, there are six potential ways you can move within and interact with the VR environment.
Three are translational — meaning you can move along three axes in relationship to your surroundings. You can go forward and back (“surging”), from side to side (“strafing”), or up and down (“elevating”). You see these in rudimentary VR experiences as you can approach something and back away, crouch down or jump up, and move to the right or left. These three motions — surging, strafing, and elevating — comprise “3dof” (three degrees of freedom), and can be done easily in a headset with an internal sensor.
The other three directions of freedom are rotational — meaning you don’t just move along the axes, but can rotate as well. Rotational directions of freedom include being able to tilt your head to the right or left, like putting your ear on your shoulder (“rolling”), turn your head to the right or left to pivot in that direction (“yawing”), or to lean your head forward and down, or back and up (“pitching”).
These three motions, combined with the previous three, make 6dof, which typically requires external sensors to position you in relation to the environment and objects within it.
With 3dof, your virtual experience is limited. You can draw nearer to or farther away from objects, raise or lower your elevation, or shift from side to side — but you can’t move in a curved line, bend over to inspect or interact with something, or freely move about the virtual world around you. With 6dof, you have a much more immersive experience, enabling greater interaction with the environment instead of more passively “existing” within it; you become a more active participant. You can bend over, lean, dodge, and twist as needed while examining and using objects in the space.
[content_block id=21218 slug=learn-more-about-pixo-vr-training-cta]

The difference with Oculus Quest

There was a time when untethered headsets could only offer 3dof, and to engage with 6dof, you had to be connected by a cable to a PC or gaming console. But advances in technology have enabled headsets like the Oculus Quest to provide all of the sensors required within the headset, untethering the experience and allowing for almost complete freedom of movement both in physical reality and virtual reality.
HMDs (short for “head-mounted displays”) such as the Oculus Quest enable users to operate inside the virtual environment freely, empowering them to duck, twist, swing, and move around without getting tangled up in a cable. As a standalone VR headset, Quest and others can be used in almost any enclosed space (sunlight may damage the sensors, so it should not be used outside). There’s no need to tether it to a phone, PC, or gaming station to use it. The entire experience is contained within the wireless headset and two handheld controllers.
The 6dof technology in the Oculus Quest allows it to track your movements (up, down, left, right, forward, backward) and move around in a room-scale setup. Four cameras (one on each corner of the headset) track and map the space around you, and touch controllers allow you to use both hands as needed to manipulate objects inside the virtual world.
Quest runs on the Oculus OS, a variation of Android and includes new tracking technology called Oculus Insight. This leading-edge tech is capable of scanning all items in your VR space. It detects real, distinct features such as edges and corners and builds a three-dimensional map that accounts for your playspace’s floor, ceiling and walls, as well as rugs, art, windows, and curtains.
The playspace data can then be combined with data from the gyroscope and accelerometer. This gives accurate positioning of the headset as fast as once every millisecond for real-time play and reactions. Oculus’ Guardian system prevents you from banging into walls and furniture while you play. You can also save multiple playspaces, so you can quickly load your own or a friend’s for fast setup.
With no external sensors, the potential is enormous compared to tethered 6dof systems. There is a potential for “arenas” to be created to allow many people to be brought together for a VR experience, (assuming the VR software you’re running allows for multi-user functionality — as PIXO VR’s does), which could be extremely useful for training scenarios that require a lot of space and the ability to accommodate the participation of large groups of people.
The headset can be jacked into noise-canceling headphones, and the entire array can be charged with a battery pack kept in one pocket, allowing for hours of uninterrupted use. The headset is also more comfortable than many previous VR rigs, resting firmly in a stable position against the forehead instead of fitting tightly around the eyes like goggles.
Touch motion controllers are automatically tracked by sensors in the headset, providing an improved spatial experience and the opportunity to easily manipulate objects that require two hands, like simulated heavy equipment, (or in the case of gaming, weapons and such). The virtual world can be cast to an external screen, so people not using VR can view what the participant is seeing, another excellent tool for training scenarios.
Critically, the Oculus Quest is much more affordable, both at the consumer and enterprise levels, than many would have anticipated for a cutting-edge, untethered 6dof system. It is compatible with programs from previous Oculus products, such as the Oculus Rift, and can be sideloaded with other programs as well. As the technology continues to advance and the price range continues to drop for Oculus and other similar untethered 6dof VR systems, their potential for training and simulations will continue to expand.

Further Reading:

Everything You Need to Know About 6dof and Standalone VR
Difference Between 3dof and 6dof, and Why It’s Important

Industries:

Construction                      Manufacturing                     Energy & Utilities

PIXO Has Improved VR Management to One Easy Step

As VR training becomes more prevalent in enterprise, one of the leading issues users have identified is how complicated managing the training seems. With PIXO, VR management has been simplified to just one easy step.

Click Here