A Double Dose of Tech – Halldale Attends Two Tech Events

On the evening of Wednesday, September 25th, 2019, Halldale Group Industry Reporter Amanda Towner, CEO and President Andy Smith, and Business Manager for the U.S. Holly Foster attended the VR/AR Association (VRARA) Central Florida Chapter Meeting and Technology Showcase at the Orlando Science Center in Orlando, Florida. The following day, the Halldale staff, including Business Manager for Europe Natalie Morris, continued exploring the use of technology in the training industry by attending the Florida Simulation Summit at the Orange County Convention Center.

The VRARA chapter meeting was sponsored by the OrlandoScience Center, the University of Central Florida (UCF), and the DiSTICorporation and was led by Chief Revenue Officer of the DiSTI Corporation andVRARA Orlando Chapter President John Cunningham.

VRARA Technology Fair

The evening began with a technology fair. Members of thechapter displayed their innovative products and programs in the science center forthe public, allowing everyone to not only view the products in action, but alsoto become completely immersed in them by trying it out for themselves. Companiesincluded CyberDream, Xennial Digital, SimBlocks, Varjo, Eyeflyapps, Serl.io,and the Digital Animation and Visual Effects School.

Varjo Technical Support, North America, Miles Heckendorn (left) shows Halldale Industry Reporter Amanda Towner (right) the Varjo VR-1 headset.

Miles Heckendorn, Varjo Technical Support for North America,showed us Varjo’s VR-1 virtual reality (VR) headset in an Airline TrafficController program, which simulated what the environment would be like in acontrol tower. Instead of being immersed into the program initially afterputting on the headset, we were each taken through the device’s calibrationsequence first. Similar to clicking several points on a phone to calibrate its touchscreen,each person followed their gaze on a white dot that travelled inside theheadset. The “glints” inside the device tracked eye-movement as we went throughthe calibration sequence, and when the device attained enough information toaccurately produce eye-tracking, the VR program began.

Of course, when it was my turn, I had to test out itsaccuracy for my own sake, right? I moved my eyes as quickly as possibleanywhere I could in the control tower, and to my surprise, the red circle trackerpinpointing my gaze was had stayed in sync without a delay. Birds were flying behindthe tower, and as I swung around to my left to follow them, the glints knewexactly which bird I was following in the flock.

While I was testing its accuracy, I made quite a scene formy colleague Foster who laughed as my eyes buzzed sporadically in my self-madescience experiment. She could see everything on the screen that I was seeingthrough a desktop view — including the red tracker that showed exactly where myeyes were looking and what I was doing. Talk about someone being inside yourhead!

For training, this means an instructor would know exactlywhat a student was doing inside the program and how they were responding to theenvironment. Interestingly, new users are not able to keep their eyes focusedon one pinpoint location because their eyes have not yet been trained to do so.Experienced users will be able to keep their gaze steadier and more direct.After hearing this from Heckendorn, I tried to steady my gaze in one exact spotand found that my eyes could not settle down, but instead jumbled and jumpedall around the spot I focused on.

We also visited CyberDream, who let us know about theirupcoming Virtual Battlegrounds VR game that will host a 32- vs. 32-playerinteractive, simulated battle in November.

The Future of Tech

After the technology fair, we went to the theater room forthe opening ceremony and keynote presentations. Wes Naylor, CEO and founder ofFifty Pound Brains, delivered the welcoming address, stressing the need forgovernment and academia to come together to get technology right. VR, saysNaylor, tells stories, and this technology can be used to make knowledge moreefficient. It is the core of great creation and can be used to educate peoplefor a greater world.

General Manager of Microsoft Education Dan Ayoub (left), Chief Revenue Officer of DiSTI Corporation and VRARA Orlando Chapter President John Cunningham (center), and Alan Smithson, CEO of MetaVRse (right). Image credit: DiSTI Corporation.

Dan Ayoub, general manager of Microsoft Education, followed on this idea with his keynote presentation. Ayoub discussed his journey into the education realm with his technology background, reflecting that modern education hasn’t advanced that much, and there is a dissociation between the skills needed in the future and how we are preparing the future workforce.

“Education is empowering,” says Ayoub. “How do we helpteachers drive students in the right direction?”

We can do this with job disruption, by staying on top of newtechnologies and learning from them. We are not 2D creatures after all, we are3D, so using technology for active learning is more natural for us than traditionalpassive learning, says Ayoub.

Mixed Reality (MR) has a direct, positive impact on students,he said. Improved learning outcomes include increased academic achievementscores, retention, abstract and spatial reasoning. Technology also encouragesself-directed learning and creates a learning environment for activeparticipants. It can also be used as a vehicle to teach empathy by walking astudent through another’s experience. MR uses include remote assistance,training and task guidance, collaborative learning, and contextual data access.

Ayoub shared studies demonstrating the effectiveness of technologyin education. In a study by West Coast University, medical students usedAugmented Reality (AR) to study anatomy and showed a full letter gradeimprovement, with a 25-30% increase in grades. Students also had a 35-45%increase in their retention of the material. In a recent case study of studentspreparing for a cadaver test, those using AR showed identical grades to those whoused classical studying, but the AR students achieved these same results with60% less preparation time.

This means that using technology in medical schools couldhelp students prepare for their residency at an earlier time since they canlearn more efficiently in a shorter time frame.

Alan Smithson, CEO of MetaVRse, led the second keynotepresentation, elaborating on technology and its increasing use in the next fewyears. In a market report he shared, it is estimated that the annual growthrate in the AR/VR industry will be 133% in the next five years and the value ofthe industry will reach $108 billion by 2020 and $1.3 trillion by 2025.

Smithson also shared an Accenture Research analysis ofnational workforce data, which predicted the percentage of work time that couldbe augmented though Extended Reality (XR) by industry, with a 21% averageoverall. Health and social services have a potential for 35% of work time to beaugmented, with construction at 30%, education at 23%, and the public sector at21%.

Aside from future predictions, Smithson shared innovationsthat are happening in the industry right now that show the effectiveness of XRin training. Walmart, after using VR to deliver Black Friday retail training toits employees, had 15% higher scores and a 900% faster training time. UPS usedXR driver training on 4,000 employees and decreased training time bytwo-thirds. Delta Air Lines implemented VR maintenance training at one-tenththe cost.

Both keynotes elicited several eerie questions from theaudience on the future of technology and what this means for the workforce withrespect to job security. Smithson predicts that while several positions couldbe replaced with new technologies such as artificial intelligence, new jobswill emerge to support that change. Ayoub, in his presentation the next day atthe Florida Simulation Summit, shared a positive outlook on how technology andhumans can work together while responding to his Q&A session. There iscurrently a 3% chance for misdiagnosis with human operators, explained Ayoub.Using artificial intelligence, there is a 5% chance for misdiagnosis – muchlarger. But by using these two entities together, the percentage could belowered significantly, to only 1%.

Florida Simulation Summit

The Florida Simulation Summit, which took place thefollowing day, Thursday, September 26th, was hosted by Orange CountyMayor Jerry L. Demings and the National Center for Simulation.

The Florida Simulation Summit was hosted by Orange County Mayor Jerry L. Demings and the National Center for Simulation. Image credit: Florida Simulation Summit.

At the start of the summit, we were greeted by a video of afamiliar and all-too-relevant cartoon — The Jetsons. Mayor Demings explainedhis choice for showing us this clip: it presents technology, innovation, andultimately where we can be. Watching technology advance as it has over theyears with innovations like videotelephony, explained Mayor Demings, is likewatching The Jetsons itself.

Industry thought leaders shared their innovations in thefield in both a technology panel, moderated by SIMETRI Inc. President and CEOAngela M. Alban, and in an application panel, moderated by UCF Institute forSimulation and Training Director of METIL.org David Metcalf, PhD.

Thought leaders in the technology panel included MarloBrooke, CEO and founder, AVATAR Partners; Doug Traill, director, SolutionArchitecture and Technology, NVIDIA; and Christopher Chambers, founder and CEO,Serious Simulations LLC. The application panel included Dr. William Little,lead augmented/virtual reality lab, Kennedy Space Center; Haifa Maamar,education director of emerging technologies, Full Sail University; and PamelaBoyers, PhD, Associate Vice Chancellor for Clinical Simulation (IEXCEL),Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery, University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Live Simulated Scenario

After the presentations, the summit ended with a live scenario,which showed how modeling, simulation & training could be used in themedical industry. The simulation was so believable, the audience had to bewarned ahead of time not to call 911, as it was only a planned simulation. Ittook place among one of the tables where attendees sat and incorporated CAE’s traumapatient simulator, CAE Caesar. The entire scenario was filmed and broadcastedon screen for everyone to experience the demonstration firsthand. The summaryof the scenario is below:

At one of the tables where attendees sat, a man communicatedto his neighbor that he did not feel like himself. Within moments, he collapsedonto the floor and was unresponsive. Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs)appeared on the scene with a gurney and equipment, ready to assess thesituation. The EMTs checked the man’s vital signs and symptoms and asked whatinformation was known about him. His neighbor, who had just met him that day atthe summit, was not able to share much helpful information for the EMTs.However, he was able to call the man’s wife and briefly explain the situationas well as find out about any specific conditions the man had.

After their assessment, the EMTs were then able to confirm thatthe man had experienced a myocardial infarction. The EMTs hoisted the “man”,now replaced with CAE Caesar, onto the gurney and began each step in theirprotocol until he could be safely stabilized and transported. When the EMTswere ready, they transported the man out of the room and the scenario endedwith applause.

The Florida Simulation Summit ended with a live scenario, which showed how modeling, simulation & training could be used in the medical industry. Image credit: Florida Simulation Summit.

This was the first time the live scenario was used at thesummit, and it seemed to be quite effective. The importance of simulation fortraining, and the impact it can have on participants, was clearly witnessed inthe crowd, who sat silent and engaged as the scenario unfolded before them.

Not only was this an interesting way to conclude the summit,it really brought home the value of technology and what it can do for theworld. As Mayor Demings alluded to in beginning of the summit, technology andinnovation can ultimately take the world where it needs to be.