Evaluating the contribution of desktopVR for safety- critical applications

Abstract

Desktop virtual reality (desktopVR) provides a range of benefits for training and visualisation tasks in safety-critical environments. Users can exploit conventional keyboards and mice to manipulate photo-realistic images of real-world objects in three dimensions using QuicktimeVR. Other approaches, such as the Virtual Reality Mark-up Language (VRML), enable users to navigate through three dimension models of virtual environments. Designers can exploit these techniques in training tools. They provide users with an impression of environments that are either too dangerous or too expensive to allow direct interaction during familiarisation exercises. DesktopVR also supports the visualisation of safety-critical information. For example, it can be used to provide engineers with an overview of the increasingly large and complex data sets that are being gathered about previous accidents and incidents. However, it is also important to balance the appeal of these techniques against a longer-term requirement that they actually support the tasks for which they are being developed. This paper, therefore, describes the problems that arose when two design teams attempted to validate the claimed benefits of desktopVR as a training tool for a regional fire brigade and as a visualisation tool for accident statistics.