Assignment 3 - Dangerous Occupation VR

Nathan Johns – KIT208 Virtual and Mixed Reality Technology

Overview:

Dangerous occupations or jobs with great risk involved tend to prove troubling to train and prepare a worker to accomplish. Whether because the risk of fatality or the risk of great disaster, a VR platform to teach students how to successfully complete their job without the real-world risk would be of great assistance to many work providers across the world.

Application Description:

The program I have decided to prototype is a VR program, which uses traditional VR methods - such as a VR headset to display visual images and VR controllers to manipulate the virtual world around the user - in order to better train future workers of dangerous, or high-risk occupations. In the example provided, I created a virtual experience for a student to experience what it is like to be an electrical engineer working to fix a high-voltage power line, which in real life is an extremely dangerous job. The test includes the user to overcome various challenges, such as working at heights, working in the dark, and dealing with extremely dangerous amounts of electricity - of course, in the created test all the spoken dangers are completely harmless, and allows the learner to learn by failure without any risk to themselves or others.

A case study Fatal occupational electrocution in electric linemen states that in a study of Turkey lineman it was reportedthat"24% of electrocution occupational deaths in electricians working on power line poles." (2015, p.28) They conclude that proper training programs would be beneficial for the reduction of electrical-related deaths in the practice of working with power lines. A VR environment provides the perfect training program for any future working, planning to participate in the field. Along with providing a danger-free environment, a VR program would also allow the ease of teaching proper safety protocols and procedures to these future workers.

The final version of the program would be accessible to any businesses that wish to properly train their employees, or even to governmental programs for teaching new workings in the field. It would include proper VR controller support, allowing the learner to manipulate objects within the virtual environment and properly use tools to participate in the repair of electrical power lines.

Interaction Design:

• Usage of VR controllers
• Visualisation with VR headset
• Manipulation of virtual tools
• Ability to learn/retain information

The usage of VR controllers is necessary in order for the learner to interact with the virtual world, displayed upon the screen of the VR headset. This provides a very naturally form of interaction for a human, which is more accustomed to touch, than to more artificial means of controlling devices, like a keyboard, or remote. The user will (hopefully) find the experience one of education, and retain information learnt about safety in the real world – which will ultimately keep more people from dying needlessly.

Technical Development:

The software application uses the VR environment provided by (in this case) the Oculus Quest. To complete the test provided by the program and "win", the user must first take the hammer object and climb the ladder to the fuse box. Interacting with the fuse box whilst holding the hammer (hitting the cover with the end of the hammer) will cause it to slide open. Next, the user must take the screwdriver and interact with any piece of wire within the fuse box that emits sparks. (moving the end of the screwdriver into the wire) After successfully fixing all three sparking wires, the overhead power line will cease its sparking, meaning the user has completed the test.

3D Models:

A low-poly telephone pole, which is used to represent a power line in the prototype.

A low-poly telephone pole, which is used as a tool to repair the broken fuse box in the prototype.

A low-poly hammer, which is used as a tool to open the broken fuse box in the prototype.

A low-poly fuse box used to represent the broken electrical device, making the powerline malfunction. It must be repaired in the prototype by using both the hammer and the screwdriver.

A low-poly ladder, which functions in the prototype to allow the player to climb the power pole and fix the fuse box at height.

A low-poly toolbox, used for decoration in the prototype.

A low-poly road that curves artfully, used for decoration in the prototype.

A low-poly truck, used for decoration in the prototype.

A low-poly piece of desert ground, used for terrain in the prototype.

A dome used to represent the sky in the prototype, which displays a night texture with moon and stars.

A small, low-poly cactus, used for decoration.

A large, low-poly cactus, used for decoration.

A low-poly plant, used for decoration.

References:

Siddhartha Das, Kusa Kumar Shaha, Sanjay Sukumar, Ambika Prasad Patra, Vinod Ashok Chaudhari (2015) Fatal occupational electrocution in electric lineman - reasons behind its occurrence and measures to promote safety, Karnataka Medico Legal Society (vol.24, no.1, p.28-33) http://kamls.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Vol-24-1-2015-1-28-33.pdf

Telephone pole by Poly by Google [CC-BY] (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) via Poly Pizza (https://poly.pizza/m/4Lp7FdQqR6i)

Screwdriver by Poly by Google [CC-BY] (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) via Poly Pizza (https://poly.pizza/m/4873ED-rB3o)

Hammer by jeremy [CC-BY] (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) via Poly Pizza (https://poly.pizza/m/cOizz1RJnb3)

Toolbox by jeremy [CC-BY] (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) via Poly Pizza (https://poly.pizza/m/20JcnkCnbAc)

Curved road by Poly by Google [CC-BY] (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) via Poly Pizza (https://poly.pizza/m/9r2Owu4oVHw)

Free Low Poly Desert Pack by 23 Space Robots and Counting... (https://unity.com/legal/as-terms) via Unity Asset Store (https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/free-low-poly-desert-pack-106709?aid=1100liZev&utm_campaign=unity_affiliate&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=partnerize-linkmaker)

Truck by Poly by Google [CC-BY] (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) via Poly Pizza (https://poly.pizza/m/edJLxRGWFzS)

Simple Sky - Cartoon assets by Synty Studios (https://unity.com/legal/as-terms) via Unity Asset Store (https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/simple-sky-cartoon-assets-42373?aid=1100liZev&utm_campaign=unity_affiliate&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=partnerize-linkmaker)

Fuse Box by zeoxo [CC-BY] (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) via Poly Pizza (https://poly.pizza/m/dCzy46eI_IT)

Ladder by Keith Davis [CC-BY] (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) via Poly Pizza (https://poly.pizza/m/6JRbnTNfhSS)