Serving six years in the Air Force allows you to learn many things, from tactical and strategic thinking to operational management.
I always had a passion for technology, and I saw firsthand the challenges users faced while working in secure environments. I also saw the potential that technological advancements and solutions can have in secure government sectors.
EXPLORE: See how the Navy uses VR to train aircraft carrier crews.
Emerging Tech in Secure Environments
Virtual reality is rapidly revolutionizing how organizations conduct business today, and there are many compelling benefits and reasons to invest in VR. Forward-thinking organizations are using VR in various capacities, including to better retain and motivate their employees and craft immersive training environments where teams can learn by doing to maximize the return on investment.
While government use of VR is still in its infancy, there’s a lot of appetite for innovation using the technology. Use cases for VR in government have proliferated over the years and continue to grow as agencies adapt many of the best practices deployed in the private sector for use in data visualization, manufacturing and training, among other applications.
Data Visualization: Imagine being able to quickly turn many pieces of disparate data into a single, real-time view to improve predictability. For example, planning for a dignitary flying into a specific location means tracking information such as weather, traffic patterns and threat assessments. That means a user must digest and plan amid all of these varying elements, which can be complicated and even overwhelming when processed separately. When dealing with this much disparate data, having the whole picture at any given time is critical and helps to reduce risk.
Secure Manufacturing: VR can reduce the cost of operations, eliminating the need for things such as physical prototypes so products go into the field faster, a key competitive advantage. Building virtual designs and mock-ups and having the ability to experience and more quickly make modifications in VR is profoundly impacting the entire design process. This is true for Bell Helicopter, which is using VR to visualize a full-scale model right from the beginning.
Test pilots can experience the aircraft as if they were inside an actual model, allowing them to provide faster and more specific feedback. In turn, engineers can make adjustments to the design based on critical success factors such as visibility, access, safety, comfort and more, greatly reducing the overall design cycle.
Military Training: Government entities are increasingly looking to engage and train their employees in new and more effective ways than the traditional lecture-based approach. VR can accelerate learning and comprehension of critical information, increasing the effectiveness of training programs and the safety of employees in higher-risk environments, such as in a refueling scenario.
The U.S. Army’s Training and Doctrine Command’s Enterprise Classroom Program is designed to train soldiers by shifting from lecture-based instruction to active-learning and VR environments in the military occupational specialties training areas, which are offered to more than 600,000 soldiers annually.