Risk management - Real Stories - Virtual, augmented and mixed reality for real-world impact

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Risk management

Helping heroes ❤ Fighting fire with fire

The very nature of a Firefighter’s job involves fearlessly facing dangers and saving lives. Their selflessness is beyond admirable, and their dedication keeps our communities safe and sound. When Firefighters aren’t facing burning flames, they focus on training as a team so they can be prepared for any emergency thrown their way. However, given the destructive nature of their tasks, training in realistic environments is quite costly and difficult to replicate safely. Ultimately, this limits the number of in-field training hours Firefighters receive every year.

To make Firefighter training more accessible for Tactik360, we used StellarX to create a collaborative Virtual Reality experience that allows Firefighters to get hands-on training in life-like environments in a cost-effective and scalable manner, which is not only safe but easily accessible. Furthermore, the real-time collaboration allows Firefighters to work towards improving responsive times as they face fire and other perilous situations.

Immersive simulations

Getting hands-on

The solution proposed by OVA resulted in the development of a collaborative training experience for Firefighters in which they can practice over and over again, and effectively manage dangerous crisis situations.

As such, we created a virtual environment that mirrors the reality Firefighters face every day. The Space includes a hub in which Firefighter trainees receive an emergency call about a flaming house in a residential neighborhood. On the scene, firefighters must use the equipment at their disposal and the firetruck to rescue distressed victims from the hazardous flames.

In the heat of the action

In addition, we designed contextually adaptive scenarios to replicate, with as much realism as possible, the emergency situations firefighters must respond to as a team. For example, one scenario requires that Firefighters collaborate to save victims from a flaming house. Each team member must accomplish specific tasks, such as climb the ladder and extinguish the flames on a given floor.

RESULTS & BENEFITS

After months of training, the Tactik360 team saw a significant improvement in terms of responsive efficiency and team collaboration. Tactik360 also noted that Firefighters were pleased to receive additional hands-on training in a safe environment and cost-effective manner.

Naturally, in the coming months, Tactik expects that using StellarX as a complement to their real-world training will better prepare Firefighters in the field as they can use Virtual Reality to practice for any type of situation: water rescue, avalanche training, vehicle accidents, cave and tunnel emergencies, structural collapses, elevator issues, powerline dangers, industrial accidents and more. And, it will help future Firefighting students build up their confidence and skills as they get hands-on practice.