The Lascaux Cave near the village of Montignac in southwestern France is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and contains over 600 paintings that cover the walls and ceiling of the cave. These paintings depict a variety of animals, people and geometric signs.
Some anthropologists and art historians interpret the paintings as a record of hunting successes or a ritual to support future hunting activities. Regardless of the true reason for their creation, these paintings are an example of primitive communication and storytelling , dating back to around 15,000 BC. Various forms of narrative have evolved over the centuries - from paintings to written texts and speech.
Every day we talk to others, sharing stories and experiences.
However, regardless of the medium, the goal of storytelling remains the same: to immerse the viewer in the narrative and evoke emotions. This is what VR has in common with the Lascaux Cave.
Virtual reality, in its current technological form, is simply the latest evolution of the storytelling medium . How does this relate to health and safety training?
In the context of training, virtual reality is a storytelling tool that is used to create and present realistic scenarios that engage participants and evoke specific emotions, such as fear during an accident simulation or empathy for the victim. An example is the " Train Fire " application, which is intended to present the duties of operating a rail vehicle in the event of a fire hazard. Railway service companies use this training to train future train managers. Specialists who decided on this form of training decided that it was the best way to immerse the recipient in the narrative of a train fire and to evoke specific emotions in him. All this is aimed at increasing the involvement of participants and increasing the effectiveness of training. As a concept, VR is deeply rooted in human history, which means its importance isn't going away anytime soon. On the contrary, virtual reality opens up new opportunities for us in occupational health and safety training, enabling even deeper immersion in training materials and more effective acquisition of knowledge, which directly affects the safety and health of employees.
As a concept, virtual reality has existed for as long as stories have been told.
Virtual reality and other technology - how society reacts to technological innovations
Analyzing the prevalence of different technologies provides us with a valuable frame of reference for the current development of VR. For centuries, technologies such as landlines, tablets, personal computers, and the Internet have taken a significant amount of time to reach a level of widespread adoption. For example, landline phones reached 17% adoption in U.S. households after 29 years, tablets after 23 years, personal computers after 19 years, and the Internet after 8 years.
A chart showing the spread of specific technologies over the years. Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/virtual-reality-dead-jeremy-dalton?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android&utm_campaign=share_via
Since its commercial debut in 1993, VR has experienced changing levels of adoption. In 2020, estimates put VR adoption at between 6% and 16%, indicating slow but steady progress comparable to other technological innovations. We can therefore assume that this is only the beginning of the entire era of virtual reality technology and we will observe its development as well as the development of other everyday devices, without which we cannot imagine our day.
The future of technology is unknown to us and we can only try to imagine how much the future of virtual reality will change. It is worth translating the benefits of modern technologies into every aspect of life. Mobile or landline phones are not only for us to talk to friends, but they are also a tool for quickly calling for help. Laptops not only provide entertainment, but are a tool for millions of people and an educational means for children and teenagers. Our company also wanted to change the view of virtual reality and give it greater importance. VR is not only realistic games or a way to transfer to another world, it is also a tool that allows you to train employees in first aid, health and safety and fire protection in a way that is impossible to carry out using traditional methods. Let's find the good in every technology. You can sign up for free demo of our VR applications by completing a short form - Free tests of our VR apps | EHS VR
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