I recently had the opportunity to observe at a large cable company in Denver. I found out that the company’s Instructional Designers are utilizing virtual reality to train their cable installers and I jumped at the chance to see their work in action.
The IDs utilized a combination of Oculus Rift headsets, Leap Motion and Unity 3D software. In the simulation I was guided through a series of steps to prepare the truck and put on my gear. Then I hoisted myself up in a cherry picker to the lines to work on them. This training technique provides safety to workers, saves the company significant money and allows learners to practice multiple times without requiring shutting down a city block obtaining a truck for training purposes.
While this may not be applicable for every industry, it works well for this particular company. The applications of VR are exciting and I am happy to have had the chance to see their work.