Taking Virtual Reality Simulations to the Next Level in the Craft Industry

VRSim, a company based in East Hartford, is revolutionizing the craft industry with its virtual reality simulations. Their simulations are designed to provide practical training for various professions, including emergency medical services. The company was brought in to help a group of high school students in East Hartford who were aspiring to become medical rescuers but were struggling with their anatomy and physiology exams.

The CEO of VRSim, Matthew Wallace, and his team of programmers worked for eight months to create the Emergency Medical Services simulator, which aimed to assist the students in their training and exam preparation.

“We were having trouble recruiting candidates for the police, fire, and medical rescue services,” said Michael Walsh, former mayor of East Hartford. “To sustain our candidate pipeline, we partnered with the school system.” Unfortunately, students within the system were finding it difficult to pass the anatomy requirements of the exam.

This is not a surprising issue, as medical rescue training programs are often faced with financial constraints. In fact, Connecticut spends only 0.06 cents per person on medical rescue training, ranking the state 47th in the country.

Walsh met Wallace in 2021 and reached out to him at the end of 2022 to present the problem. Wallace saw an opportunity to help while also growing his business, which focuses on VR technology for various industries.

“This tool is designed for the TikTok generation,” Wallace said. However, the goal is to provide affordable training for those pursuing a trade.

Whether it’s painting, welding, or even nursing assistance, VR Sim has the right product for each of these industries.

“I have a degree in history and law. I have no technical knowledge in any field,” explained Wallace. “I learned to operate this technology on my own, but I brought in extensive business experience representing small companies.”

So, how did a lawyer from Savannah, Georgia become the CEO of a technology company with 200 patents and products sold on every continent except Antarctica?

“We have six of the top ten manufacturers in the aviation industry,” Wallace said.

In 2001, Wallace’s company secured a significant contract with Pratt & Whitney to create virtual reality for designing products for the Joint Strike Fighter aircraft.

They then developed the first prototype of a virtual welding system and sold it to Lincoln Electric, the world’s largest supplier of welding products. This industry is now worth $500 million.

But their work doesn’t stop there. They have also created a painting simulator used by companies in the aviation and automotive industries.

“We provide them with technology for training painters,” Wallace said.

The program allows individuals to refine their painting skills and then demonstrate to the company how much they saved on materials by using the virtual method.

“It’s not just about painting,” Wallace added. “It’s about infrastructure repair, bridge construction. All these aspects are covered by industrial protective coatings. It’s not just painting. We also do powder coating and sandblasting.”

But it’s not just virtual painting.

Through their Japanese distributor, they use the technology to virtually fit new parts. This allows manufacturers to see how long it takes to paint the part, how many painters are required, and the cost involved.

“This allows them to make engineering and design changes before producing the parts,” Wallace explained. “We like concepts that allow us to make fundamental changes and add value.”

They also appreciate how their technology helps employees with professional development, specifically those considered as mental laborers, creating safer communities.

“This could be modern virtual reality programming,” Wallace said during an interview at the company’s headquarters in East Hartford. “Although it’s not perfect simulation, it is training simulation.”

Sara Blackstock, responsible for marketing and communication at VRSim, demonstrated a program where she interacted with a virtual elderly resident, cleaning and assisting with resuscitation techniques.

Using controllers and a headset, Blackstock performed chest compressions on a male patient named “Henry.” Everything she did happened in real-time. She checked for breathing, and when she didn’t observe normal breathing, she returned to chest compressions and then used a breathing mask following the instructions.

“This tool doesn’t need a computer. It only requires a headset and instructions,” Wallace commented, referring to the Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) VRNA simulator. “You see the democratization of VR.”

He described it as a vocational learning program, where the focus is on “see one, do one” rather than “read one, try one, and eventually do one.”

According to Wallace, the program is effective because the muscle memory of the movements is developed, even though one doesn’t feel the resistance of performing chest compressions.

He mentioned how it would be easier to conduct exercises at nursing homes, allowing individuals who didn’t achieve satisfactory results or harmed a patient during a simulation to practice their skills multiple times. He even suggested that individuals could take the simulator home and practice in the comfort of their own environment.

“It’s portable, removing any limitations,” Wallace explained. “It makes it an affordable training solution for neglected areas in multiple different ways.”

He highlighted the workforce shortages in nursing homes, fire departments, and over 400,000 unfilled welding positions in the United States.

“It allows for faster and more effective competency acquisition,” Wallace said.

So, what does the future hold for VRSim?

“We will start training more workers, from nursing assistants (CNA) to registered nurses (LPN), and from medical technicians to medical rescuers (EMT),” Wallace stated. “The next step is working with difficult patients who have memory problems or require highly challenging medical interventions.”

The company is currently working on integrating artificial intelligence that will allow trainees to ask questions to a virtual assistant.

FAQ: Creating Virtual Reality Simulators for the Craft Industry

The source of the article is from the blog reporterosdelsur.com.mx