Safety Training Goes 3-D

July 4, 2012

Safety training is one of the most important indicators of success for Canadian companies wishing to keep their employees and contractors safe both here and abroad.

But, communicating safety policies in today's workplace can be tricky; what one person considers safe and acceptable behavior may be entirely different from another person's perception. Gaps may form based on a worker's comfort with English, his or her cultural and industry experience, education level, and age.

Advancements in 3-D visualization technology allow companies to bridge the gap by enabling employees to learn acceptable behavior and practices in a safe and controlled virtual environment.

Dynamic Vision, Calgary, now supplies 3-D visualization content to companies in this area, focusing on 3-D animations and interactive simulations. These visual aids are ideal for helping manufacturers communicate hard-to-see processes, demonstrate equipment operations, and communicate safety training and maintenance procedures, the developer states.

Immersive 3-D animations create a visual experience that allows users to "immerse" themselves in a virtual environment. Using a head-mounted display or polarized 3-D glasses, participants become part of a 3-D world in which they can explore and interact with their surroundings in real time.

"The world of immersive 3-D technology isn't really that new. It began to evolve in the early '80s as virtual reality and was perceived as the 'be-all' medium for training and social interaction applications. It was extremely expensive to develop and deploy—only niche markets like the military, aviation, and research facilities could afford to use this platform," said company President and Animation Director Steve Zurakowski. "With major advancements in hardware and software performance in the past decade, standard desktops and laptops have never been more powerful or affordable. We can now offer immersive 3-D solutions as an alternative visualization experience to our client base, something that wasn't feasible before."

www.dynamicvision.ca