Real Experiences with Virtual Reality (VR)

Consumer trends have transformed how we learn. With Meta and Apple unveiling new consumer products that have overcome certain teething difficulties, VR is on the cusp of widespread use, exiting the domain of safety training.

To learn more about the technology, current and future use cases, and lingering limits, I chatted with Thijs de Vries, Warp VR’s co-founder and CEO, in the Netherlands.

Thijs de Vries, co-founder and CEO of WarpVR

A great question to start a conversation in this industry is always: What is your dream car, Thijs? 

Thijs de Vries: That is a good question. On the top of the list would be a Land Rover Defender. I like the old model, but I also like the newest model, which is completely revamped. Really the kind of adventure, the ability to go to places where few people have been. I do not own one. I do own a couple of Lego models of Defenders. So that is the next best thing. 

Very iconic. 

Thijs de Vries: This is distinctive in its shape and looks. The need is absolutely a second thing because I live in a city and only drive on asphalt. I do not really need a Defender, obviously. Therefore, it might be a dream car. 

Thijs, you are the CEO of Warp VR. Since when you were in this industry, in this technology?

Thijs de Vries: We started with two other co-founders back in 2017. That is also my first introduction to VR as a technology. I saw the potential of this technology. My background is learning, gaming, and using gamification to change behaviour. I did that as an entrepreneur before starting this venture.  

But then I came across VR as a technology, especially that combination between learning, changing behaviour, applying gaming techniques, and VR as a technology. Which is just a means to an end, since it is about the learning goal, engagement, what people learn, and how they learn. But there was immense potential for using that technology in combination with that kind of learning.  

Gaming and VR are like practicing real life.

2017 was still early for virtual reality.

VR is finally born in the 60s, with massive headsets, from the perspective of research and development.

2017 was the first moment when it had the potential to become a true consumer device. Back then, there were a few headsets that had the potential to become consumer devices, such as the Oculus Rift. On the other hand, there was also the Samsung Gear VR, which is a much more affordable device.

A lot has happened in the last six or seven years. Many new and different devices have come onto the market, which have gained much greater consumer acceptance through the use of these VR headsets.

Land Rover Defender

What impact does VR have on the learning space?

Thijs de Vries: Technologically, a lot has changed and evolved in the last six or seven years. The devices have become better, faster, and with better quality. Ultimately, this has led to more people using VR.

Before, you had to be a technical genius to operate these devices. Plus, putting on a VR headset made you feel somewhat cut off from your surroundings. It took a bit of persuasion to use this technology.

That's changed completely, and it's now easy to use. Sometimes even without a controller, so you can use it simply with hand tracking.

The user experience has been significantly improved. Meta is well on its way to providing an operating system for the Quest headsets. These are the headsets they currently sell on the market. They're super easy to use. It's safe to assume that VR will become more and more of a mass consumer product.

But it's still an evolving market. Apple launched the Apple Vision Pro on February 2nd. This brings a new entrant to the market. Apple does things in a certain way, with a very good user experience and high quality. It will remain an expensive product for now. But it will raise the overall quality and user experience of VR to a higher level. And that will also impact the learning and training market.

True emotions make VR training so effective.

Let's double-click here for a moment. Learning used to mean: first studying or attending school, then applying it. Recently, learning has increasingly been integrated into work, i.e., into the actual activity. Is this a use case for virtual reality?

Thijs de Vries: At WarpVR, we help customers with VR training. We have a platform, an authoring solution, where customers can create their own VR training scenarios and have their employees play them

DThe use cases are typically in the health and safety field, such as evacuations, first aid courses, fire drills, and workplace safety procedures. But we also see soft skills and customer service training, customer meetings, leadership, even public speaking and addressing teams. VR helps in all of these use cases by providing a sense of being there in these scenarios.

In traditional learning, we tell people a lot. We send information. And then we finally test whether the knowledge we've imparted has resonated with the learner. In other words: we teach, and then we check progress.

If you look at games, you can also do it the other way around. And something has changed in the learning philosophy over the last ten years. So, yes, you can test at the end to see if the knowledge is there, but you can also start testing right away. Because the test is already a form of learning.

When you're playing a game, let's say a mobile game, it would be a completely boring game if I explained to you how it works. You want to try it out and figure it out for yourself.

You have to fail because you want the challenge. That's the game. It's made difficult, but it remains achievable. These levels are always designed to be difficult to reach, but always possible. It always feels possible. That's how you keep going.

After all, playing is learning . You learn how to play the game; you learn tactics. Once you've learned those tactics, you can apply them in real life. And that philosophy, combined with virtual reality, is a super-powerful one.

Okay, you can apply new knowledge directly in a situation, such as a sales conversation with a potential customer. On the other hand, you can discover tactics or principles in a gamified environment by testing things without breaking anything.

Thijs de Vries: Absolutely. You enter a virtual world where it's safe, where there's no penalty for a fire drill if the building eventually burns down. VR makes it possible to get as close to reality as possible.

And that also evokes emotions. When something happens, a fire, it's pretty scary, right? You want to be as close to that emotion as possible to learn, for example, the best way to proceed to find the exit. What would happen in real life if that emotion erupts? And you can remember the necessary steps because you've been there before. You've already experienced it. You've experienced it safely. It's so much easier to remember the VR experiences in those situations and then apply them in real life.

I spoke to a fighter pilot about safety training. He said: When things get tough and the pilot loses control, they instruct their students to sit on their hands for 10 seconds. Because with the adrenaline rush, they make the wrong decisions. Do nothing for 10 seconds so the adrenaline levels subside. Is there a way to simulate this adrenaline rush in VR training?

Thijs de Vries: Absolutely. And that's a good example. Whatever happens in VR training is this boost. You want to get as close to that emotional boost as possible.

Here is an example of a training session one of our clients conducted: a bank robbery simulation.

In Austria, it's legally required that bank branch employees be trained for bank robberies. Unfortunately, robberies still happen. They have this training for bank robberies. So the bank decided to train in VR. They'd done it with actors before. But the actors didn't really capture the emotion of a bank robbery. Because you're with your colleagues. Everyone is sitting in a training room at headquarters. In a real bank robbery, the atmosphere is completely different.

So you want to get as close as possible to the emotion of a bank robbery. So they did it in VR. We helped them create this training scenario. And trigger that excitement, those emotions that occur when someone walks into the bank with a gun in their hand and demands money.

Because it's hectic and under a lot of pressure. You could make a decision that's not in your favor or in the favor of other people in the bank. So the ten-second rule is good. In the simulated environment, it's not a problem if you make the wrong decision.

You might well make a wrong decision because you feel the atmosphere, because you're influenced by it. And the thing is: after you've made that wrong decision, you experience that someone has died. Something bad happens. But you just try again. You play it again, you start the scenario again with the first scene. You go through it again and do it a few times. And this repetition ensures that the rush will be less when such an event actually occurs. And maybe instead of 10, it will only be one second.

So yes, of course there's always that emotional pressure and making quick decisions in these high-consequence situations. But you can make them more rational and less emotional by training them in a realistic environment and overcoming that emotion.

That's what VR can achieve, especially in this gaming context. That's what we do together with our customers.

When VR and AI come together…

What are the challenges to getting the most out of VR-based training?

Thijs de Vries:  There are challenges, but in recent years they have become fewer and fewer.

At first, people had difficulty using these VR headsets and even experienced motion sickness. But it gradually became easier.

Nevertheless, there are challenges.

With ours, the hardware is still a challenge. Not so much the cost of the hardware, because the current price of these VR headsets isn't much. It's often difficult to calculate the potential return on investment. These headsets are shared VR headsets, which means it can still be difficult for employees to get their hands on one. Companies buy 100 or 1,000 headsets, not 20,000 or 50,000.

Second, the content is important. When you train employees in safety procedures or even customer service, the training content is often highly tailored to the customer. They have their own procedures, their own products, and their own safety regulations. So far, few training courses are off the shelf; most are custom-built.

And that requires time and resources. With platforms like ours, we make it easier for our customers.

Our clients typically have learning departments. They already create e-learning. Now they can also create VR training, which requires a special approach and specialized knowledge. But we explain how it works. We get them into the VR mindset. But it still requires a certain amount of time and effort to create high-quality, engaging content.

Additionally, more explanation is needed during use. Not everyone is familiar with VR yet, although most people have had some VR experience. Putting on a headset requires a certain level of trust, as you're isolating yourself from the physical environment. You're essentially alone. For a few, this can be intimidating at first. This guidance from trainers or experts, especially during first-time use, is especially important for overall success.

AI (artificial intelligence) is the trend we're currently observing. How does it impact VR? For example, does AI reduce the cost of content development?

Thijs de Vries: AI reduces costs. This affects many industries and many technologies. VR is one of them.

We can already see what generative AI can do when it comes to text, but also images. And now also when it comes to video, for example, but also 3D assets. So, generative AI can help lower the barrier to content creation, so it can accelerate content development, whether it's figuring out the plot of a particular training, creating the actual video for a training, or creating the 3D assets for the training.

Development time can be shortened with AI. With less time spent creating these training scenarios. And what we're also seeing right now is that certain training experiences have a component of a personalized approach, where, for example, in a soft skills training, you can talk to an avatar, which is an AI avatar, and the avatar then responds. The response can always be different because it's generated in real time by the AI. This can also increase the play value of replaying training scenarios, as they can be different each time you play them. This is especially true for these soft skills scenarios.

Will we ever reach a point where the singularity for VR is achieved, meaning that classroom training without some aspects of VR no longer exists?

Thijs de Vries: I would say no. And that would clearly be the better future.

I believe in a blended approach. People learn in different ways. They have different learning styles. VR is a powerful format. But when it comes to learning math equations, for example, VR isn't the best way to do it.

There's always this demand for different types of learning. There will always be a human component that's required to train people.

VR will be big, and it will be much bigger than it is now. But it will always be the hybrid approach that currently exists between e-learning, classrooms, workshops, and VR.

Thijs, the automotive industry is undergoing a process of change. If you had the opportunity to send a message to the CEOs of the automotive industry, what would it be?

Thijs de Vries: An interesting question. Especially because the automotive industry was one of the first sectors to use VR. In the design and development of new cars, employee training, engineering, maintenance, etc.

What's interesting is that the car is a product, but ultimately you're buying an experience because the brand represents a certain experience. And the car is the product that reinforces that experience.

VR is also an experience: you put on a headset and are in this world.

The brand experience is an important component when it comes to sales.

If you think about self-driving cars, that will also be very interesting.

People in cars will do something different than what they currently do. They won't be driving anymore. For in-car entertainment or the in-car experience, I can certainly imagine car headsets popping out of the roof that you can put on and immediately get to work. Alternatively, you can play games, study, or watch a movie just like that.

The car drives you from A to B, but in the meantime you experience something completely different.

Wouldn't that be a remarkably interesting future?