Virtual reality has come a long way from its inception. If you can think back far enough, back to when virtual reality (VR) was first breaking into the mainstream in the mid-1990s, it was solely the realm of video games. You put your head into some sort of gigantic helmet and grabbed a couple of glorified joy sticks and essentially stumbled around in an environment that looked something like Tron. Of course, as with many new technologies, a rough start was only the beginning of the story. There were those who saw the potential of where VR could go and they kept working at it. By the early two thousands, that gigantic helmet became a gigantic visor that still had a bunch of cables coming out of it but at least got you into a much better virtual environment. Now, in the popular mainstream there are the very small and light Oculus VR goggles that connect to your phone via Bluetooth. You still look like you’re in a video game but that isn’t really a pejorative anymore given what the modern video game is capable of.
Of course, that is the mainstream affordable VR technology available today. What kind of a capabilities are available to entities like universities, corporations, and governments with massive budgets? Basically, they make the Oculus look like a Mr. Professor from the 1980s.
One of the most interesting and undeniably cool uses of VR being explored right now is in training fighter pilots. Using VR to train pilots has a lot of advantages since flying a fighter is inherently dangerous, even outside of combat. The modern fighter jet easily costs tens of millions, with the most recent F-35 running around $80 million. That, plus the life of the pilot are big things to risk every time a new pilot takes it out for his first few solo runs. Being able to get tens or hundreds of hours of virtual time flying such a complex machine under a pilot’s belt before actually sitting in the real cockpit can minimize those dangers.
How do they go about it? Project Avenger (under the auspices of the US Navy) uses state of the art equipment like traditional simulators but also lower cost virtual reality simulators that are much more available, giving pilots more virtual hours than ever before. They can also be outfitted with suits than have more sensors than the latest Mars rover, allowing analysts to track the pilots’ physical responses like temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, and more – in addition to the specific data on how they are flying. All of that data can help make pilots better, analyzing when they are banking, how hard they are climbing, and relate all of that to the stresses that both the aircraft and the body are able to take.
So, does it work? Absolutely! Pilots are getting to their solo flights up to 50% faster thanks to the integration of virtual reality and analysis of source data into the training program. That means as Project Avenger develops and becomes part of the standard pilot training for all branches of the military (let’s face it, Space Force is going to jump on this), trainees will get to their squadrons not just faster, but better pilots than they would have otherwise.
Of course, there are plenty of other potential uses for VR-based training. Surgeries, underwater welding, and crane operating can all be practiced risk free in a VR environment, allowing people to make their mistakes and ‘work out the kinks’ before they put on the gear and go do it for real.
All of this shows the importance of source data in developing new programs and products. The Navy is building better pilots by working closely with them and directly acquiring and analyzing their data, in turn making the Navy better. You can also better your business when you work with TARTLE to get source data from your clients. You will understand them better and be able to tailor your business to serve their needs and so improve the lives of both customer and business.
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