Virtual Reality Health And Safety Training Experience Wows Roadshow

Health and safety professionals attending a WorkSafe roadshow had a virtual reality welding fume risk management experience courtesy of Company-X.

“It's really good,” said PPL Plastic Solutions Health, Safety, Environment and Quality Coordinator Jackie Uy.

Uy donned a Meta Quest 2 Headset to try out the interactive VR risk identificiation experience at the Worksafe Carcinogens and Airborne Risks roadshow in Hamilton.

“It's very simple and effective,” she said. “It is a really good training aid. It is absolutely going to be a good training tool.”

Uy’s only previous VR experience was driving a virtual forklift truck.

Company-X senior consultant Lance Bauerfeind said it was a unique creation.

“We really did not know what we wanted at the start. We knew we wanted a VR experience, but we had not come across one, so we had nothing really to do it on.”

As the discussions progressed the requirements became clear and developer Sebastian Dusterwald was involved.

Company-X built the VR welding experience for a Meta Quest 2 headset using the Unity game engine.

“We wanted to include learnings on risk identification and understanding that every situation has multiple high-and low-level controls. So, we are hoping to use it for internal training and engagement for our new inspectors who may not have much experience with welding fumes.”

“The biggest challenge was getting the interactions right,” Dusterwald said. “Making them feel intuitive to users with no prior VR experience. Little things, like turning buttons into objects in the VR world that the user could press with their hands, just like they would in the real world made a big impact.”

There was also some challenge in getting this complex environment working within the limits of the Meta Quest2 headset. Careful consideration went into the environment design, and what graphical features to use to maintain a smooth experience for users.

A few ideas were dropped to keep on time and within budget but the end solution provided WorkSafe with a brief yet comprehensive demonstration tool with which to engage with health and safety people across the country.

Unity allowed Dusterwald to get early prototype builds out very quickly to iterate on. This is a key requirement working with bleeding edge virtual reality technology when the best way to do things is often undefined.

CAPTION: IMPRESSIVE: Jackie Uy tries the WorkSafe VR welding experience at the WorkSafe roadshow in Hamilton.

About Company-X

Company-X offers world-leading software savvy delivered with a can-do attitude.

Founded in 2012 by software specialists David Hallett and Jeremy Hughes, Company-X immediately won contracts with New Zealand government departments and a US multinational.

The team has grown to more than 50 New Zealand-based software specialists, with only the best and brightest passing the Company-X interview and assessment process.

The Company-X team prides itself on experience in a wide range of technologies and languages and loves challenging problems.

Company-X ranked on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ Asia Pacific, a list of the fastest-growing technology companies in the Asia Pacific region, in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Company-X has won many awards:

• Company-X won an ExportNZ Top Tech Companies of 2022 award.
• Company-X won the Best Professional Service Innovation Award in the Hamilton Central Business Association Central Business District Awards 2021
• Company-X software quality assurance tester Jes Elliott won the Reseller News Women in ICT (Information and Communication Technology) 2021 Rising Star Award.
• The Independent Software Vendor Award at the Reseller News Innovation Awards 2020 for state-of-the-art software that turns text into human-like audio files at a fraction of the cost of booking a voice artist, recording studio and sound engineer.
• The Independent Software Vendor Award at the Reseller News Innovation Awards 2019 for a hands-free auditing application developed for AsureQuality.
• The Service Excellence and Global Operator awards at the Westpac Waikato Business Awards in 2018.
• The Services Exporter of the Year category at the Air New Zealand Cargo ExportNZ Awards 2017.
• The Homegrown Innovators Independent Software Vendors Award at the Reseller News ICT Industry Awards 2017.
• The Roading Asset Management Innovation Award at the Road Infrastructure Management Forum in 2017 for the One Network Road Classification Performance Measures Reporting Tool built for the New Zealand transport sector.

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