How AR/VR Technology is Revolutionizing Employee Safety Training

AUSTIN, Texas - Sept. 18, 2019 - PRLog -- Do you find it challenging to lead new employee through your safety training onboarding process? And do you question whether they have really absorbed and mastered critical standard operating procedures?

You are not alone.

Savvy companies are discovering the value of using immersive game technologies — such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).

As we'll see in the examples below, industrial AR and VR-based industrial safety training programs allow companies to put their workers in potentially dangerous simulated real-world environments.

What's The Difference Between Augmented Reality (AR) And Virtual Reality (VR)?

First, a quick work on definitions. In classic AR applications, users hold up a phone or tablet screen with a live camera image upon which computer-generated image overlays are matched to the view.

Classic VR applications require users to wear goggles that replace our normal view of the world with a 360-degree synthetic environment, which users can explore and touch, allowing them to experience a game world, or in our case, realistic warehouses, refineries, construction job sites, etc.

Not sure which violations are the most common in your industry? It's easy to find out. Visit the OSHA citations page, pick the NIACS code for your industry and workforce size, and check the result.

In our case, the top 3 violations in furniture manufacturing (NIACS code 337) are:

• Respiratory Protection.
• Woodworking machinery requirements.
• Hazard Communication.

Hopefully, you wouldn't find any of these violations. But most managers agree, it's a major ongoing challenge to create an effective culture of safety among employees.

Regular monthly safety meetings can help to a degree, but so often become rote and stale.

In response, companies such as PIXO VR are building new interactive tools — based on popular video game technology — that could be part of the solution.

Another advantage of VR-based simulations is that they can bring together users from different site locations for safety training, making them a cost-effective solution for new employee onboarding at larger corporations, as no travel costs are involved.

The accident statistics from the 2018 edition of Liberty Mutual's Workplace Safety Index are pretty sobering: businesses expend more than $1 billion a week on serious, nonfatal workplace injuries.

While preventing falls is a major concern in the construction industry, it's not the only one.

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