Plextek and CDE create immersive VR training solution
Design and innovation consultancy, Plextek, has announced the successful completion of a proof of concept project with the UK government's Centre of Defence Enterprise (CDE) to create a brand new immersive skills training and development solution for trainee tank drivers and pilots using the virtual reality headset the Oculus Rift.
The flexible system, run through a simple commercially-available laptop and the Oculus Rift headset, offers potential tank drivers the chance to test and hone vital skills such as hand-to-eye coordination, reading maps and 3D displays and team work. Once wearing the headset, the user navigates themselves through different landscapes, carrying out different tasks such as matching colours and shapes while simultaneously balancing items using their controllers. Other team members can join them inside the system with additional headsets to enable team collaboration exercises that ordinary ‘immersive’ solutions cannot provide.
This alternative VR-based solution is also incredibly flexible, portable and will save the Ministry of Defence (MoD) several millions of pounds to implement across the tri-services. It will also help the MoD to screen the innate abilities of groups of candidates at the start of the recruitment process and use the results to guide individuals towards specific career paths where they have shown a natural talent. This will help optimise the overall time and cost of training by filtering out weaker candidates, who are a drain on resources, earlier in the process.
The current system will continue to be developed by Plextek with plans to expand beyond tank drivers to introduce a variety of other job functions across the tri-services.
Collette Johnson, Director of Medical & Healthcare at Plextek, commented: “Virtual reality is revolutionising the quality and accuracy of training programmes for the military, providing the chance for military personnel to not only understand the skills they are proficient in, but where they must learn and develop further. This new government funded technology solution showcases the innovation the defence market is currently experiencing and how, in the future, we will see many more examples of ‘consumer’ technology being integrated more specialist military applications.”
Tim Vaughan, Capability Development - UK Defence Solutions Centre: “Having won the Phase 1 Innovation Challenge, Plextek developed their innovative Virtual Reality skills evaluation system that can be used to assess the early suitability of new recruits, new employees and people undergoing new training challenges. It has potential to cut through the sometimes haphazard people evaluation process, to draw out strong candidates and thereby shorten the selection and training process.”