Future Forward: How Virtual & Mixed Reality Are Changing the Face of Training for the Trades, Healthcare, & Sports
While it’s still early days for the metaverse, technologies like virtual and mixed reality are already unlocking new possibilities to improve skills acquisition and training. From people looking to master a new trade to surgeons striving to reach the top of their game to injured athletes maintaining their skills and confidence on the road to recovery, immersive technologies have been helping people reach new heights and push the limits for years. Today, we’re spotlighting various ways people are tapping into the potential of VR and MR in their everyday lives.
For Shanna Ford, who grew up in a blue-collar household, the promise of a steady income offered by a career in the trades was ever present. And with her own artistic bent, she leaned toward welding.
“With welding, you can do anything,” she says. “I liked that it didn’t feel like it locked me in anywhere—if I wanted to go and do iron work and build huge structures, I could do that. And if I wanted to go to an auto shop, I could do that. Even Disneyland has their own welders. I could do art on the side or make furniture work for myself, make gates, these beautiful structures and creative sculptures. I could do anything.”
Of course, as with any trade, hours upon hours of practice are required to achieve a state of mastery—and it’s in that development of muscle memory where VR truly shines.
“Everything used to be hands-on—everything was in the classroom,” explains Alex Declair, who works for RSI—a StrataTech Education Group school, which tapped ForgeFX Simulations to develop a VR application based on their training and curriculum. “It was very traditional. And as soon as COVID hit, we were in a scramble, doing our best to take care of our students and get them to learn what they needed. But you can’t just send a welding machine home with a student to weld, you know. You have to have a lot of electricity, a lot of materials, consumables, and it just wasn't feasible. So our CEO Mary Kelly jumped on VR right away. We can give a Meta Quest headset to every one of our students, and they can take it home and learn how to weld.”
“With welding, you need to be able to replicate the same movement, the same speed, the same angles every time,” adds Ford. “The more muscle memory that you have, the smoother your weld is and the better it comes out. With VR, you can practice all sorts of different welding. You can do different positions and different setups. You can set your settings on your machine in VR, just like you would in a shop. You have to have everything set to the exact right angle and the right speed, and it lets you know if you're going too fast or too slow or if you need to change your angle. VR coaches you as you're going to help with that movement.”
While the use of VR for training in the medical profession is nothing new, Fundamental VR and Orbis International are working to get surgeons around the world access to the training they need to treat cataracts—a leading cause of preventable blindness.
“You can turn preventable or avoidable blindness into permanent blindness with a bad operation, so that makes the priority of training very high,” explains Dr. Glenn Strauss. “And patient access is also limited for those who are in training. There are plenty of patients for those who are already trained, but access to patients for those who are in training, who need to develop the skills—that is much more difficult to achieve. That’s where some of these new technologies are going to help address the problem: the development of virtual reality as a simulation tool”
That rings true for Dr. Anushree Baid, who began training in VR just a few months into her residency at Dr. Shroff’s Charity Hospital.
“VR was a fun and innovative way of starting the training program,” Baid recalls. “We learned how to be precise, delicate, and patient, really patient, and a year down the line, I believe that all of these qualities are very important to have as a surgeon. When you’re operating on the eye, you have to zone into the eye and you have to zone out the world. Anything happening outside shouldn’t bother you. And you have to keep changing your decisions as this process is going on, so you have to be really calm and composed. VR helps you become that person because it takes you into that zone. And it’s very sensitive, so it helps you to be very precise with your movements. And a millimeter here or there makes a difference.”
For an athlete who’s suffered an injury, recovery can be a long and arduous road. But thanks to Rezzil Player, Letourneau University alumna Kelci Wilson and professional footballer Marcus Rashford worked on agility training to get back in the game with confidence.
Sports have always been a cornerstone of Wilson and Rashford’s lives, so facing an injury was difficult to say the least.
“Sports have been one of the main priorities in my life,” Wilson says. “When I injured myself, I was heartbroken. It was pretty rough. I’ve been an athlete my entire life. I had a season ahead of me, I’d worked hard, and then it was all gone due to a practice injury. All that work just kind of felt like it went down the drain.”
Rashford had a similar experience. He’d grown up with older brothers who played soccer, and that’s always what he wanted to do. But he found that bouncing back from an injury is as much about mental strength as it is physical prowess.
“You have to understand it's a long season, and you have to listen to your body when it’s tired,” he says. “When you miss a few games, it does change your routine. You have to watch your diet a little bit more, because you’re not doing as much running out on the pitch. You probably do more gym-based stuff, and then it’s sometimes easier to put on muscle mass, but you might not want it at that stage of the season.”
With Rezzil Player’s Reaction Wall, both athletes were able to work on their agility in a uniquely low-impact way, and mixed reality let them do it without losing sight of their trainers and surroundings.
“The gaming aspect also brought the fun back,” notes Wilson. “Being able to do different games or working on your reaction time, there are different things that you could do that help you stay active and stay motivated while you technically can’t be as active as you'd like. Seeing the progress definitely helped physically and psychologically—seeing the results, seeing you’re getting better. That was definitely the best part about using virtual reality in my training, 100%.”
“VR can be the difference between winning a trophy and losing a trophy,” adds Rashford. “You have to think of the bigger picture: what you want and what your aims and objectives are. And anything that helps that, you’ve got to take it seriously.”
