Virtual reality to the rescue of professional training

Virtual reality to improve learning of technical gestures

How to improve learning of technical gestures using “VR” - in other words, virtual reality? This, in a nutshell, is the subject of the thesis being prepared by Julien Cauquis, a young PhD student in the Computer Sciences department at IMT Atlantique and graduate engineer from Arts & Métiers. His work should enable him to formulate recommendations for applications dedicated to professional training.
"Virtual reality offers a number of advantages for continuing training," he explains. "You can control all the elements, measure various parameters - such as the thickness of a coat of paint - and do it all safely." Not to mention the fact that it avoids certain problematic situations: in surgery, for example, there is no need to use cadavers to practice anymore...
To teach the handling of a tool in the virtual world, you can reproduce the original tool identically or, depending on the case, settle for an approximate replica, but “instrumented” - i.e. fitted with sensors, control buttons, etc. But how do you design this replica? Many factors - its shape, color, the material used - are likely to influence the quality of learning.  

How to design a virtual tool

Julien Cauquis is particularly interested in the question of the mass of this virtual tool: does it have an impact (and which?) on the learner's perception and “feeling” - and therefore on the effectiveness of the training? To find out, an experiment was carried out with a sample of 80 participants, divided into three groups, each using a replica with the same, lower or higher mass than the original tool. These three groups were confronted with “basic” tasks: sanding, cutting or drilling a workpiece. Other tests were carried out with smaller samples. In the end, the results obtained were “comparable” whatever the mass of the replica. They also showed significant improvements, during “real-life” training, on certain performance measures such as execution speed. However, these results can be qualified by the nature of the tasks performed. Julien Cauquis was invited to present these results last March in Orlando, Florida, at IEEE VR, a leading international symposium dedicated to virtual reality. “It was a very enriching experience, allowing us to exchange ideas with specialists from all over the world,” he says. His work has also been published in the prestigious journal TVCG (Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics), a worldwide reference on the subject.
Julien Cauquis also studied the guidance of technical gestures. "To teach a gesture in VR, we can show it in real time, at a distance, and help the learner with a gauge," he explains. "But by doing so, we generate a dependency on this assistance: when we remove it, the learner no longer knows how to reproduce the exact gesture..."

Potential applications for surgery, crafts, industry, etc.

Julien Cauquis's work could be applied to many fields - starting with training in more technical or complex gestures. It could also be applied to healthcare, particularly surgery, or to crafts. "For example, Julien Cauquis explains, we can imagine preserving certain manual skills or traditional craftsmanships, such as pottery or cabinet-making, which tend to be lost. These skills could be accessible in media libraries." In fact, VR makes it possible to “store” experiences and sensations, then transmit them at will. The same is true in industry, where valuable know-how often disappears with the departure of certain experts. And that is not all: VR is also very promising for learning music - even if it doesn't allow you to assimilate the secrets of artistic genius...

Technological locks

"We are still in the very early stages," says Julien Cauquis. "Virtual reality is still a new field, which aims to reproduce and transmit sensory experiences. To do this, it seeks to simulate the 5 senses. For sight and hearing, it works well. But when it comes to touch, smell or taste, there are still many technological hurdles to overcome."
Another present barrier lies in the computing power required and its miniaturization. The virtual reality headsets and augmented reality goggles offered by the digital giants are still bulky and not very ergonomic, despite their impressive performance. Not to mention other constraints, such as batteries. But things are moving fast...
"Generally speaking, VR is a very cross-disciplinary field," notes Julien Cauquis. "It calls on a variety of disciplines: digital engineering and programming, of course. But also psychology, bio-mechanics, neuroscience and the mechanisms of perception..."
Julien Cauquis is due to finish writing his thesis in a few months. For the moment, he divides his time between the IMT Atlantique campus in Brest and the Laval premises of his employer, Clarté, a technology resource center specialized in virtual reality, with which he signed a Cifre (1) contract, and which aims to provide a link with the industrial world.
What's next? The young PhD student has no plans to pursue a career in research. “I am first and foremost an engineer,” he stresses. “I like to respond to a technical need, if possible with a production focus.” Would he like to spend a few years in the United States, where most of the major players in virtual reality are based? He does not think about it at the moment, and hopes that his work will arouse interest in France.

(1) Industrial agreement for training through research.