I used VR in its earliest practical days for my senior undergraduate inorganic laboratory in the late 1990’s. I used a state of the art Apple QuickTake 100 camera with a whopping resolution of 640 x 480 to shoot pictures of the lab and equipment. I then used Apple’s stitcher tool which creates a giant 360° panorama photo and then QuickTime VR which lets you scroll or “walk” through and include hotspots for web actions. You could also use those to connect to other rooms in the lab
The net outcome is that students could see everything in the lab and learn everything about the contents before they ever set foot inside. Students could take the VR tour from the course web page (this was about 10 years before the first iPhone). When you view you stopped in front of the Guoy balance and clicked you’d go to the operating instructions. When you clicked on the safety shower you’d get information about using it. Click on the glovebox antechamber and you’d get information on how to pump stuff into and out of the box.
Nowadays you can do this all on your phone with an app. For general safety training and orientation, you don’t really need much more unless you’re looking to keep records of it. I always just used it as a general resource of lab knowledge the user could explore on their own.
If you want to do simulations, then VR solutions that include headsets (Playstation, Meta Quest, Apple Vision Pro) sure are slick and would be a great what-if role play for the extreme hazardous scenarios you suggest. If you haven’t seen how something like Vision Pro works, here are some basic use cases:
https://education.apple.com/resource/250013156 If you look around on YouTube you’ll find all kinds of demos. Some really astounding stuff, particularly with respect to surgery etc.
From a business perspective, one way to go is to focus on generic safety modules with generic labs, lockout/tagout etc so the materials could find wider use in existing corporate training and HR packages. However, this puts you up against high volume folks from outside the US who can drown you in lower cost and potentially mediocre content (unless you plan to produce this overseas). In my personal experience, most companies are not going to fork out a premium for generic content unless you have some kind of added value or partner with industry leaders. Alternatively, you could focus on site-specific (OSHA demands site-specific training, after all) and/or highly technical types of situations. Fewer sales, more work, but nicer margins, and you build a nicer portfolio. And it’s easier to get into working with a single client to start off and get your feet wet.
Keep in mind that for any medium to large business you will need integration with HR/ERP types of systems. Folks will want auditable records of training, and your colleague will have to pick up the expertise necessary - or partner with someone who has it.
Best wishes,
Rob Toreki
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On Dec 9, 2024, at 8:21 PM, Joe Sabol <jsabol**At_Symbol_Here**chem-consult.com> wrote:
Dear CHAS,
Does anyone use Virtual Reality for 1) chemical safety training, or 2) any other purpose?
I know someone with a VR business and he's looking for additional markets. Currently, he focuses on "team building" but I don't know much more. I'm self-employed, but anyone at an academic institution or corporation might have the critical mass needed to make that module useful. Also, I'm not aware of ACS using VR tools, but if anyone knows, please share.
Back to the safety training, it would be valuable for extremely hazardous operations: before the worker over torques the flange bolts that cracks and sprays hot acid all over, do a VR simulation?
Thank you for any insight,
Joe Sabol
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