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Virtual Reality: Ethical Challenges and Dangers

By ben kenwright on january 14th, 2019 in editorial & opinion , ethics , magazine articles , social implications of technology , societal impact.

Physiological and Social Impacts

According to Moore’s Law, there is a correlation between technological advancement and social and ethical impacts  [13]. Many advances, such as quantum computing  [22], 3D-printing  [11], flexible transparent screens  [1], and breakthroughs in machine learning and artificial intelligence  [17] have social impacts. One area that introduces a new dimension of ethical concerns is virtual reality (VR). VR continues to develop novel applications beyond simple entertainment, due to the increasing availability of VR technologies and the intense immersive experience. While the potential advantages of virtual reality are limitless, there has been much debate about the ethical complexities that this new technology presents  [9],  [19]. Potential ethical implications of VR include physiological and cognitive impacts and behavioral and social dynamics. Identifying and managing procedures to address emerging ethical issues will happen not only through regulations and laws (e.g., government and institutional approval), but also through ethics-in-practice (respect, care, morals, and education).

Including Ethics in the Design

Integrating ethics and moral sensitivity into design is referred to as “anticipatory technology ethics” by Brey [4] and “responsible research and innovation” by Sutcliffe [23]. These researchers emphasize the vital importance and responsibilities that designers have on technologies and their capacities, as well as designers’ moral obligations to the public. These obligations may include a wider long-term view, taking into account social involvement, environmental impacts, and other repercussions. Moral responsibilities related to technology have long been a subject of debate. For example, guidelines presented by Keith Miller [12] and other researchers on the topic of moral responsibilities emphasize that people who design, develop, and deploy a computing artifact (hardware or software) are accountable for that artifact, and for the foreseeable effects of that artifact.

Traditional moral responsibilities in the physical world do not necessarily translate to virtual worlds created by designers.

However, it is unclear how to predict the impact of virtual reality technologies (i.e., foreseeable effects). There is also a question of “foreseeable use” versus “intended use.” Hardware engineers may develop virtual reality technologies that are then used for unintended purposes in applications and by software developers.

In the wake of society’s exposure to VR, and due to today’s powerful computer systems, designers are able to create and develop complex interactive virtual worlds. These immersive environments offer numerous opportunities — both good and bad. But organizations and designers are not obligated to obey ethical restraints. There is also the element of hackers, and the issue of immoral exploitation of the technologies. These ethical questions arise partly because VR technologies are pervasive and difficult to classify and identify, and because it is difficult to predict their short- and long-term impacts. VR technologies also raise questions about legal responsibility, for example if software and hardware are used incorrectly or in unethical ways (see  Figure 2  for an outline of the ethical challenges connected with VR technologies).

So as VR has hit the mainstream, much debate has arisen over its ethical complexities. Traditional moral responsibilities do not always translate to the digital world. One aspect we argue is essential to ethical responsibility for virtual reality is that VR solutions must integrate ethical analysis into the design process, and practice dissemination of best practices. In the digital era, organizations and individuals need to uphold ethical and professional responsibilities to society and the public. Creativity should be combined with diligence. Decision making, ethics, and critical thinking should go hand in hand throughout the development process. Development needs to include future predictions, forecasting impact, evaluating and elaborating on possible consequences, and identifying any issues with openness and transparency.

Benefits and Applications of VR

VR technologies are commonplace in today’s marketplace, with key players including, Google, Microsoft, Oculus, Sony, and Samsung seeking to push the limits and applications of VR. VR first appeared in the 1980s, but then faded away. This time VR is here to stay  [3].

Related to VR, we need to acknowledge the importance of active real experience. Active real experience is a fundamental element within VR (i.e, the illusion of “real”). Real, or close-to-reality, experiences have an impact on the user by providing “positive” experience. VR with these touted benefits include games, films, education, training, simulations, communications, medical (i.e, rehabilitation), and shopping.

Due to the availability and flexibility of VR technologies, the number of virtual reality users is forecast to reach 171 million by 2018, with the VR market set to continually grow at an extraordinary rate  [20]. In 2018  [21], the value of the global consumer virtual reality market is estimated to be U.S. $4.5 billion (see  Figure 1 ).

Figure 1. Number of active virtual reality users worldwide beginning in 2014, in millions  [20]. Forecasts for the future are based on previous trends.

Figure 2. Ethical questions and challenges around VR technologies.

Need for Investigation

Currently, there is a lack of information on the short- and long-term physiological impacts of VR. There is also not enough known about who and what types of individuals are using VR (age, types of experience, attitudes, and levels of digital sophistication). Many questions relate to individual attributes, and to what degree the user needs to possess “critical reasoning” abilities.

The intersection of ethics and virtual reality has to date focused primarily on individual issues, for example, specific content, or blood or violence. While these dilemmas are important, many other subtler ethical issues relating to virtual reality demand the attention of designers, scientists, engineers, and related communities. Designers, programmers, and testers usually focus on specific areas, yet they could be involved in contributing to solutions to ethical issues, or they could be responsible for inputting ethical concerns. Frequently, designers must make decisions based on the lens of their knowledge and experiences. But designers’ scope of knowledge does not always encompass the wide range of areas that might impact the public related to physiological, social, or ethical aspects.

Ideally, consumers should be entitled to know what “tests” have been done to ensure public safety, including physical and mental safely, for young and old, in all situations and environments. In addition, any “possible” problems or “neglected” issues should be explicitly stated as a matter of public and moral obligation, not just for legal purposes. Of course, this might be challenged by managerial decisions — any “questioning” or “refusal” (or even public announcement without permission due to NDAs) might impact the individual’s career. Hence, regulators need to step in and ensure “designers” are accessible and the facts are not compromised. Prevention is better than “correction.” We want to avoid reacting to a disaster after it has happened. We want to solve the problem before it manifests itself, using forward thinking, preventative measures to create a safer more reliable future-proof technology or solution.

There is also debate about corporations “waiting” for regulators and legal liabilities to push them towards more moral, safer designs. This attitude can cause significant harm to the public.

Complex Intercoupled System of Components

We need to look VR solutions as a whole, and not just at individual components such as specific components, interactions, or sounds. The interrelated and synergistic operation of the system can have a broader impact on the user. VR combines multiple senses (audio, visual, touch, and movement) each of which influences the immersive experience.

Passive and active involvement of the user, where a user may sit back and “watch” or experience the situation “autonomously” is one possible experience. Another can be more active involvement, where the user is required to “hammer” home the activity or action. The complexities of designing a VR solution involves millions of lines of code and a myriad of three-dimensional content elements that provide texture and geometry, not to mention sounds and specialist hardware like headsets and head-tracking tools. While software testing has always been challenging  [15],  [25], testing the physiological, ethical, and social aspects introduces a new level of difficulty. Challenges of addressing specific scenarios and the complexity of the system are compounded by the new levels of freedom in VR – by the variety of uncertainties and situations that are possible.

VR designs need to account for human interfaces, environmental perceptions, levels of freedom, user-user interactions (social/networking), coordination, and control. Different users and developers will use the hardware/software in different ways, creating multiple outcomes and choices. Strong trends towards online solutions, with user-user interactions and communication increase the possible complexity, and also may lead to “swarms” of virtual users – another area where further research is needed.

We anticipate that before long, swarms of virtual users will be able to interact and communicate. We need to ensure this is done safely. Close coupled interactions of multiple users will also raise questions of privacy and hacking, i.e., of possible intentional tampering or non-legitimate accessing of user resources.

Over-Trusting

The public and users have a predisposition to trust technologies from big brands, often involving acceptance without questioning. While VR solutions possess the power to entertain, engage, and tantalize users, they also have the power to cause significant physiological trauma. There are worrying concerns about over-trusting new technologies. Some questions, designers and users need to ask themselves are:

• Is it possible, for example, for the VR system to be “hacked” without the user knowing (i.e., modifying/injecting changes into the user’s virtual world).
• How much does “age” impact the experience in terms of digital awareness, overall experience, mental sensitivity, etc.?
• How will a user respond to unforeseen troubles? (For example, will they jerk, fall over, scream, harm themselves?)

Interestingly, with regard to the last point, if a person is immersed and believes they are really acting out the experience, they will react as they would in a real situation (i.e., behaviors could emerge). The user would be actively and cognitively engaged with the virtual environment. The ways that VR intertwines user’s psychological and behavioral aspects must be taken into account by the designers.

Regulations

As VR developers and manufacturers pursue significantly different design pathways, it makes it difficult for regulators to keep up and to develop rules and regulatory standards for safety. Among the crucial divides relates to the “applications” of VR, that is, to the type of interfaces, uses, the people who use them, etc. Of course, companies seek competitive advantage and are less interested in sharing information that might injure trade secrets. There needs to be a balance achieved between openness, reliability, and corporate rivalry and profit. Arguably, standards for VR technologies would need to have a specialized set of safety features, beyond traditional engineering tests and approaches to evaluate safety.

While some issues could be evaluated using traditional standards, such as violence and types of content, the immersion aspect of VR introduces additional risk factors that need to be accounted for, including aspects related to VR’s training and manipulation of the mind. Designers will also need to take into account approaches and solutions to reduce risks and harm. They need to insure that users are not left free to expose or harm themselves without guidance.

Relevant professional communities need to become collectively involved in developing rules and guidelines around the design process. Importantly, designers need to incorporate ethical thinking when creating innovative and creative solutions using virtual reality that incorporate safety and impact considerations. Each designer should look upon their creation or design and consider her or his ethical obligations. Designers, testers, and managers need to take a “value-sensitive” approach, and contemplate the implications of what they are creating.

How would we “demonstrate” that a virtual reality technology is safe? This also leads onto questions of levels of safety and risk, and to consideration of ratings. There may also need to be “warnings” emphases, about possible side effects. Also there is the question of how the design will impact others, and questions of social factors. For example, could the technology incite or promote unlawful behavior?

Risks to Children

Studies have shown children are most vulnerable when it comes to VR technologies, as they are highly susceptible and can more easily confuse what is real and what is not real, i.e., they likely may be less able or unable to distinguish between the real world and the virtual world  [18]. For example, in a study by Segovia and Bailenson  [18], young elementary children watched their virtual doppelganger swimming with orcas. When these kids were questioned a week later, they said they believed their virtual experience to be real. In recent studies  [2], young children would connect with “virtual characters” (avatars). Children would see the “avatar” in VR as more real (compared to characters or avatars on other mediums, such as television). The avatar in the virtual environment would be more influential compared to the television equivalent, making it more difficult for the children to inhibit their actions or not follow the avatar’s commands. And it is not only young children who internalize VR scenarios – these scenarios also impact young adults.

For example, elder adolescents have been found to be particularly sensitive to being socially excluded in a virtual environment. What this means is that parents need to be particularly careful about the type of VR content they allow their children to view (see  Figure 3 ). Note that the majority of research has been done on young adults, with little understanding of what happens to younger children when they are exposed to virtual worlds  [5],  [18].

Figure 3. Psychological Factors – Stages of learning and human development impact how our environment and experiences change as we get older.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is commonly caused by a directly witnessed real-life event that is life threatening or violent in nature. Current clinical diagnosis of PTSD excludes exposures that occur through electronic media, including movies and pictures  [6],  [8],  [16]. However, given the increasing ability to stimulate the range of senses beyond sight and sound, due to the immersive and interactive nature of VR, one has to wonder if at some point these experiences will result in the brain’s fear centers getting rewired in a similar way to that seen in PTSD. One could hypothesize that if a person felt that their VR experience was real (i.e., if they really felt they were at risk of harm), and if they did not have a way of voluntarily ending the experience, they could experience rewiring of fear circuitry of their brain in a manner similar to PTSD. They would then perhaps have a range of PTSD like symptoms.

Desensitization

Funk  et al.   [7] believe repeated exposure to real-life and to entertainment violence could alter cognitive, affective, and behavioral processes, possibly leading to desensitization. The study showed a relationship between real-life and media violence exposure and desensitization as reflected in related characteristics. One-hundred-fifty fourth and fifth graders completed measures of real-life violence exposure, media violence exposure, empathy, and attitudes towards violence. Regression analyses indicated that only exposure to video game violence was associated with (lower) empathy. Both video game and movie violence exposure were associated with stronger pro-violence attitudes. The active nature of playing video games, intense engagement, and the tendency to be translated into fantasy play may explain negative impact, though causality was not investigated in the present design.

Not all Bad

There are “dangers” with anything – however, we must not forget the huge benefits of combining VR with games, in education, rehabilitation, training, and of course, entertainment  [10],  [14],  [24]. VR is a technology – how we use VR, for good or bad, is up to us.

And VR is not the only issue affecting a user’s mental health. Many other factors outside VR influence the individual’s mental health, e.g., work, social life, or family.

VR and games also offer a means of escape. Virtual reality lets our imagination go to new heights because anything is possible. Virtual Reality helps us to test the information learned in a “real-life” situation so that we are able to evaluate – simulate – theoretical knowledge in a practical implementation. With VR we can simulate how machinery works and responds, and we can replicate soft skills such as human actions and behaviors. Another huge area is how virtual reality impacts learning, making learning fun, exciting, and visual.

There has been and continues to be rapid growth in Virtual Reality technologies. It is estimated that there will be 300+ million VR users worldwide by 2020. There remains room for debate around the topic of ethical responsibilities for these technologies. While it can be argued that makers cannot be held 100% responsible for their designs, each company and individual designer should demonstrate reasonable caution, through monitored trials and testing. Designers should not ignore possible mental health and safety issues, or physiological impacts or social and ethical factors. Steps to address these issues might include interactive testing using human and automated users.

We suggest adding additional investigation and analysis testing stages to the development of virtual reality technologies in efforts to protect the public. These tests might not focus on physical health and safety concerns, but rather on physiological and social influences. Currently, no such trials related to physiological or social factors are required, monitored, or enforced. But a large number of virtual reality applications are already on the market, suggesting that technological and economic forces may overrun efforts to protect the public good. The fact that VR is already available does not mean there is no need to address this issue, and it should not be left until it is too late.

The growth of VR technologies leads to an increase in new products and accelerated development of VR in industries such as education, healthcare, household management, tourism, and video games, impacting social and economic sectors. On one hand, there will be huge opportunities for new and innovative VR applications, beyond entertainment uses. On the other hand, there are numerous challenges and ethical issues that need to be addressed. More research needs to be done to investigate the psychological impact of VR, especially on young children, both in the short and long term. However, if the VR economy is to continue to grow while maintaining sustainable healthy new developments, it must be supported by scientific research to investigate the social and ethical issues around these technologies.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The author would like to thank the reviewers for taking time out of their schedules to provide insightful and helpful comments to improve this article.

Author Information

Ben Kenwright is with the University of Bolton, Bolton, U.K. Email: [email protected].

To view full article, including references and footnotes, click HERE .

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A VR Ethics Case Study

With URVR recipients can capture and share 360 3D moments and live them out together.

Image: by , cropped, is licensed under

URVR is a VR file-sharing app that utilizes the 360 camera (or panorama function) on users’ phones to capture more than just a snapshot. It captures entire moments, and allows users to share them with their friends, family, or other people around the world. Livestream features are also available.

Using a VR head-mounted display, recipients can step into the captured moments and live them out together. The company’s marketing materials highlight experiences such as those of grandparents being able to experience a grandchild’s first steps or first birthday in fully immersive 3D video.

The company’s license agreement states that its users’ privacy is paramount, and that therefore all of the 360 degree videos and images are deleted within 24 hours, and not stored on any servers after this period, unless the user specifies a longer window of time. As another means of ensuring users’ privacy, URVR does not filter the content that users share.

Discussion questions

Before answering these questions, please review the Markkula Center’s Framework for Ethical Decision-Making .

• Who are the stakeholders involved in this case?
• What ethical issues do you identify in this scenario? Note that some of these may be beneficial, while others are harmful/problematic.
• Which ethical aspects are highlighted when you view the case through the ethical lenses of rights, justice, utilitarianism, virtue, and the common good?

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Real moral problems in the use of virtual reality

• Original Paper
• Published: 26 July 2018
• Volume 20 , pages 249–263, ( 2018 )

Cite this article

• Erick Jose Ramirez   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9042-6942 1 &
• Scott LaBarge 1  

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In this paper, we argue that, under a specific set of circumstances, designing and employing certain kinds of virtual reality (VR) experiences can be unethical. After a general discussion of simulations and their ethical context, we begin our argument by distinguishing between the experiences generated by different media (text, film, computer game simulation, and VR simulation), and argue that VR experiences offer an unprecedented degree of what we call “perspectival fidelity” that prior modes of simulation lack. Additionally, we argue that when VR experiences couple this perspectival fidelity with what we call “context realism,” VR experiences have the ability to produce “virtually real experiences.” We claim that virtually real experiences generate ethical issues for VR technologies that are unique to the medium. Because subjects of these experiences treat them as if they were real, a higher degree of ethical scrutiny should be applied to any VR scenario with the potential to generate virtually real experiences. To mitigate this unique moral hazard, we propose and defend what we call “The Equivalence Principle.” This principle states that “if it would be wrong to allow subjects to have a certain experience in reality, then it would be wrong to allow subjects to have that experience in a virtually real setting.” We argue that such a principle, although limited in scope, should be part of the risk analysis conducted by any Institutional Review Boards, psychologists, empirically oriented philosophers, or game designers who are using VR technology in their work.

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VR technologies comprise a large class of hardware devices that can include room-sized projection systems into which subjects are placed, head-mounted displays, and augmented reality (AR) devices which overlay additional content onto a subject’s experience of the actual world (Parsons et al. 2017 ). We focus on head-mounted displays because such systems are, by far, the most widespread form of VR researchers and the public are likely to use. Although we focus our analysis on head-mounted VR displays, much of what we say will also apply to other forms of VR and AR interfaces.

The substantial philosophical literature on simulation is centered heavily around the role of simulations and models in experimental science, and the metaphysical and epistemological issues that are prominent in that discussion are not particularly germane to our concerns in this paper. However, we share some areas of overlapping interest. Frigg and Hartmann ( 2012 ) have a useful discussion of a range of views concerning what has to be true of a model for it to successfully “represent” its target. On the difference between models and simulations, see Krohs ( 2008 ) and Morrison ( 2009 ). Winsberg ( 2009 ) distinguishes some different sorts of simulation. Knuttila ( 2011 ) has a useful discussion of the senses in which scientific models may be said to represent the physical reality they model that could have some bearing on simulations and the things they simulate, particularly emphasizing the intentions of the creators/users of the simulation. Godfrey-Smith ( 2006 , p. 733) points out how different scientists can construe the same model as having different success criteria in a way that tracks our point below concerning the context-dependent nature of success in simulation.

For example, the computer program Microsoft Flight Simulator , in simulating what it is like to fly an airplane, attempts to be relevantly like an actual airplane by providing the user of the simulation with visual and auditory feedbacks that are experientially similar to what an actual pilot would hear and see in her airplane (e.g. the clouds and horizon, the instrument panel, the roar of the engines), but it remains a simulation because there is no actual airplane involved, and the game “pilot” never leaves her desk chair. If one were to try to simulate flying an airplane by putting someone in an actual airplane and having them work the real controls to really fly the airplane, that person wouldn’t be simulating flying the plane, she would be actually flying it. On this view, while a digital environment could simulate a real environment, it could never be a reinstantiation or reproduction of that environment. It would lack the necessary substance. It may nevertheless be possible, however, that certain elements of the digital environment may be reinstantiations of elements of the real environment. The example of reproduced sounds that we discuss later in the paper would constitute such a case.

We thank an anonymous reviewer for pressing us on this issue and for helping us clarify the nature of our particular moral concern. Although we believe that encouraging users to simulate immoral actions raises concerns about the nature of simulation, our own concerns in this article focus on what we believe is a different and under-examined problem concerning the possibility of VR experience itself to cause subjects harm.

The literature on the possible social and psychological effects of media like films and video games is vast, and we do not propose to give a thorough survey here. The following sources are, however, representative of the sort of work we have in mind: Krahé and Möller ( 2010 ) finds some increase in violent behavior among adolescents who engage in violent gameplay while Fischer et al. ( 2009 ) finds an even larger increase in violent behavior from those who play games that allow you to customize your avatar. Valkenburg and Peter ( 2013 ) offers a general model that aims to explain how cognitive, emotional, and “excitative” features of games can help to explain why media, especially violent media, affect people differently. Two meta-analytic studies reach opposed conclusions about the correlation between violent media and aggression: Anderson et al. ( 2010 ) suggests such a correlation, while Savage and Yancey ( 2008 ) resists that conclusion.

Sanchez-Vives and Slater ( 2005 ). Psychologists call this sense of being actually transported into a virtual space “presence”; we discuss this concept of presence and its relationship to our concepts of perspectival fidelity and context-realism below.

Won et al. ( 2015 ). Though subjects may feel like their virtual avatars belong to them, we want to distinguish a subject’s perception that she has a tentacle from the perception she would have if she actually had a tentacle. VR may provide subjects with the former but not the latter perception.

Sanchez-Vives and Slater ( 2005 ) and Fox et al. ( 2012 ).

We would like to distinguish experiences of presence from virtually real experiences. Although all virtually real experiences require a subject to experience presence, many experiences of presence will lack the context-realism and perspectival fidelity that we argue are distinctive of virtually real experiences. We say more on this distinction later.

We use the term “neurotypical” here as a descriptive statistical term to denote the range of sensory capacities available to the average adult human being. We embrace what some have referred to as ‘neurodiversity’ movements (Herrera and Perry 2013 ) and do not intend to use the term neurotypical normatively. Deafness is, by all accounts, not neurotypical though arguably it is not a disability or disease for those in the deaf community. An experience that lacks auditory inputs, however, is less perspectivally faithful than one that includes such inputs. Perspectival fidelity will relativize to the typical phenomenology of the subject population (e.g., perspectival fidelity for gorillas will look differently than for neurotypical humans and perspectival fidelity for the deaf will vary in many respects from that of hearing persons).

For similar reasons, such a soundtrack would diminish the degree of context-realism of the representation.

As augmented reality devices become more widespread and such meta-content becomes a standard component of lived experience, simulations that include this sort of meta-content may thereby become more context-real.

This is an empirical conjecture on our part. As we noted above, we do not wish to produce a view on the necessary and sufficient conditions for context-realism or perspectival fidelity. That is a task better suited to psychologists and neuroscientists. What we do wish to do is to mark out the concept of virtually real experience and its connection to VR experience in order to generate what we believe is a novel and underappreciated ethical concern about such experiences.

We are interested primarily in how subjects experience VR simulations in-the-moment, as it were. Our analysis, therefore, focuses on virtually real experiences and describes those as experiences that are treated as if they were real in the moment they are being experienced. A treats VR experience b as if it were real if A, either behaviorally, physiologically, neurologically, or psychologically reacts to b in a similar way as they would react to a real-life experience of b. It is entirely possible that subjects may re-frame these experiences after the fact (“it wasn’t real anyway”). We believe that moral issues can arise with respect to how subjects process their experiences after-the-fact, though these are outside the scope of this article. We thank an anonymous reviewer for helping us clarify this concern.

Sanchez-Vives and Slater ( 2005 , p. 333).

For similar reasons, we have doubts about the ability of VR environments to allow for any form of “in-their-shoes” empathic perspective taking (Goldi 2011 ; Ramirez 2017 ), though we do not deny that subjects in such environments feel a high degree of presence in them.

Feinberg ( 1985 , p. 10).

Note that our analysis of the potential harms of a film would be different if the film were not a simulation of fictional events but a documentary of actual events; the ethics of filming and viewing a simulation of someone being stalked and killed, for instance, are, we assume, different from the ethics of filming and viewing an actual murder. In what follows we will be focusing our attention entirely on simulations.

Strictly speaking, the sounds of a nails on a blackboard or of insipid conversation would be recreations or instances of an aspect of an experience but would not by themselves rise to the level of a recreation or instance of the whole experience . This is because of the different situational factors (subdoxastic elements of experience) that would be missing from the film version of the experience relative to the first-personal experience of being on a bus. For example, while a threatening gesture aimed at the camera may be visually similar to the same threatening gesture aimed at you in reality, your experience of the two gestures is likely to be qualitatively different.

In assessing these offenses, we set aside the very real issues that others have raised with encouraging subjects to themselves engage in unethical behavior, concerns sometimes discussed in terms of the “Gamer’s Dilemma.” Although we agree that simulations which encourage subjects to rape, torture, or kill virtual persons raise important ethical issues (especially in terms of long-term effects on individual and societal norms), we sidestep this concern here to focus on the nature of the subjective trauma that may be experienced by the subject of the experience herself. Thanks go to an anonymous reviewer for asking us to clarify this concern.

As VR technology develops, it is possible that some things that are only simulatable now might become reproducible, and smells seem a likely candidate. If VR simulations someday include elements like reproducing the odor of flatulence, and if we arrive at a consensus that being exposed to reproduced flatulence is so unpleasant that people would reasonably want to be protected from the experience, we would have to consider moving such offenses into a different category.

Our point becomes even stronger if we assume olfactory elements can be introduced to these simulations. However, even if a reader thinks these particular cases are still not morally problematic when experienced as virtually real, so long as they can imagine a scenario in which an experience becomes morally problematic when it becomes virtually real, the argument progresses.

Also, for a modern audience watching a film, part of the phenomenology of viewing a film involves the consciousness that the events one is watching on-screen were filmed at some point in the past, and so are not genuinely present. This is not true of traditional and VR computer simulations.

Although the products of imagination are almost always incapable of the sort of perspective-taking that produces virtually real experiences, they are capable of triggering trauma in some subjects. This is a significant concern and we do not wish to downplay it. Such scenarios’ ability to induce trauma appears not to depend on their medium (text, film, VR), and so we do not focus on it in this paper. It should, however, remain a real concern for those who wish to expose naive subjects to potentially traumatic scenarios in any form.

For example, our concern, stated very generally, is about a form of “imaginative resistance”: “imaginative resistance occurs when an otherwise competent imaginer finds it difficult to engage in some sort of prompted imaginative activity” (Szabó and Liao 2016 , p. 405). In our case, however, we argue that the problem runs deeper than finding it “difficult” to imagine the scenarios of these thought experiments. Specifically, we believe that features of first-personal perspectives themselves can make it all but impossible to carry out these thought experiments via the imagination (Goldie 2011 ; Ramirez 2017 ). We thank an anonymous reviewer for this clarification.

In fairness, Slater et al. ( 2006 , p. 7) appear to appreciate this concern: “[t]he actual conditions of Milgram’s experiments can, of course, never be exactly replicated in virtual reality since the participants will always know that the situation is unreal—and if eventually virtual reality became so indistinguishable from reality that the participants could not readily discriminate between the two, then the ethics issue would arise again.” However, they fail to appreciate that virtually real experiences are dimensional and may be generated even without photorealistic environments. Their own research provides evidence for this claim.

While it would surely be wrong to amputate a subject’s healthy limbs in real life even if the subject consented, surely it is not wrong (at present) to simulate lopping off limbs in VR. On our view, this is true only given the limitations of existing VR technology. If in the future companies produce VR bodysuits with the capacity to, for instance, inflict high levels of pain on their wearers, we might well decide it is no longer morally acceptable to simulate experiences that cause extreme pain in VR. As the levels of context-realism and perspectival fidelity that technology permits increases, we will need to recalibrate our intuitions about what is and is not acceptable to simulate. We thank an anonymous reviewer for pointing out the need for clarification on this point.

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Funding was provided by Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and Oculus Education Grant.

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Ramirez, E.J., LaBarge, S. Real moral problems in the use of virtual reality. Ethics Inf Technol 20 , 249–263 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-018-9473-5

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Ethics in Virtual Reality

  *This article was published in contribution to the new frontier of Intelligent Reality (IR). Click here to learn more about the 2022 IEEE 2nd International Conference on Intelligent Reality (ICIR).

Throughout history, technology and ethics have often had an uncomfortable relationship. Many engineers have regarded the ethical dimensions of their work as irrelevant; they were simply creating technology—how it was used was not their problem. While understandable, this is a naïve and increasingly untenable position to take. As noted by Brian Patrick Green, a Director at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics , “The reason technology ethics is growing in prominence is that new technologies give us more power to act, which means that we have to make choices we didn't have to make before. While in the past our actions were involuntarily constrained by our weakness, now, with so much technological power, we have to learn how to be voluntarily constrained by our judgment: our ethics.”

While the nuances of what is considered good or bad can be challenging to define, there are some clear areas where common agreement on acceptable behavior benefits the system as a whole. Any such agreement has to address the fact that this is not about just one ethical issue, but rather a complex group of interrelated issues. Failure to create a viable, broad ethical framework has a detrimental effect over time, often leading to negative outcomes such as the exclusion of already marginalized groups.

In its broadest sense, ethics in virtual reality should address issues such as accountability, digital rights, normative behavior, personal freedoms and privacy for all participants. This includes both VR developers and virtual reality users.

But what is the state of ethics in virtual reality? Have we learned anything from the past? Read on to find out.

Current ethical issues in virtual environments

 There are some ethical issues that come down to moral judgment, but those can be deeply rooted in cultural traditions and regional societal norms, and therefore hard to apply in a universal manner. However, outside the realm of moral judgment, the current ethical issues in virtual environments are numerous. At the core of many of them is the simple fact that in virtual reality, or any immersive experience, we are dealing with a virtual world. Any virtual environment is an artificial creation, and is likely to reflect the biases and intrinsic beliefs of whoever created it. Unfortunately, this can often lead to the accidental, or intentional, exclusion of some groups. This can be a result of clear bias, such as virtual environments that incorporate offensive stereotypes or other polarizing material. Or it can be entirely accidental, such as a virtual environment that cannot be navigated by someone with impaired vision, color blindness, or a sensitivity to flashing lights.

One thing that makes ethical issues in virtual reality particularly intriguing is that virtual reality itself has been shown to be a powerful tool for generating empathy for ethical issues. Researchers have repeatedly demonstrated VR’s ability to help people understand and better relate to racism, genderism, ableism and many other forms of discrimination. From recreations of scenes of police brutality, to casual racism, to simply changing a users’ point of view to that of someone in a wheelchair, virtual reality has been successfully used to generate sympathy and understanding. However, researchers such as Erick Jose Ramirez have pointed out that this type of use case is, itself, fraught with ethical difficulties .

Beyond bias and exclusion, virtual reality raises many other potential concerns.

Consider user privacy. In a virtual environment, anything is possible. Like video games, users can be free to explore roles and behaviors that they would not pursue in the real world. But would you want whatever you choose to do made public for all to see? Even if your only weakness in virtual reality is an overwhelming desire to viciously attack watermelons with a katana, do you want that to become public knowledge? Furthermore, for any immersive environment to function, the system must track the movements of the user. But the way a person moves is a very unique identifier that could be used to identify someone even when they are otherwise anonymous. How is such data protected? Who owns it and who controls it? Currently, the answer is simply: not the user. And yet most users have no idea that such data is being harvested and shared, or how much value the data might have.

Virtual Reality is capable of trigger a wide range of emotional responses, from joy to sadness, elation to terror and confidence to fear. Games such as “Richie’s Plank” very realistically mimic the experience of being placed at a great height in unsafe surroundings. This is perfectly fine if it is consensual and the user is fully aware of what they are undertaking. However, the tech industry has a long history of embedding “easter eggs”— little surprises that can be discovered by users that are often not part of the application’s original function. Embedding “shock” easter eggs seems like an inevitability, but it could be highly unethical if the user is completely unprepared for such a thing. Along similar lines, it is as yet unclear to what extent a user can suffer the effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from a VR experience. There have been multiple anecdotes from victims of harassment in VR who describe post-attack symptoms that are remarkably similar to PTSD. A closely related concern is that we still do not fully understand the short and long term impact VR can have on the human brain. Furthermore, there is already clear evidence of virtual reality’s ability to manipulate user behavior without the user’s knowledge or consent.

Other concerns include representation of marginalized groups, the potential for social isolation, over-reliance on fantasy interactions rather than real-world interactions, exploitation of VR replicas (sexual or otherwise) without the express permission of the person the replica is based on, virtual abuse, and new forms of virtual crime. While not technically a virtual reality experience, the once popular “Second Life” has been the venue for a wide array of unpleasant and unethical behavior.

Like many other technologies, virtual reality saw an increase in adoption with the COVID-19 pandemic . Virtual environments can be very appealing when you are otherwise prevented from traveling. But increasing adoption by an ever broader audience is just yet another reason why the ethics of virtual reality need to be discussed.

Importance of a code of ethics for virtual reality

If there is one thing that has remained true about the internet for the past two decades, it is that no matter what you can think of, someone on the internet somewhere will have done it, documented it, and shared it with a group of like-minded people. This ranges from professional groups and political affiliations to hobbies, to fan sites for even the most obscure films, TV shows and actors, to an almost infinite array of other topics. Unfortunately, it also includes the nastier side of human nature, from blatant bigotry, to extremism, hate speech and so much more. While the merits and limitations of free speech can, and should, be debated, it is clearly unethical to welcome a user to a given virtual environment without at least preparing them for the type of material they are likely to encounter. Informed consent is a critical ethical consideration.

Another truism from the internet is that data is only as private as the weakest link in the chain, and there is almost always a weak link somewhere. Any meaningful attempt at ethical codes of conduct has to include consideration of data privacy .

Within the world of online video games, many developers have come to realize the value of “guard rails”. These are basic rules of conduct that attempt to inform players what is, and is not okay within the virtual game world they are playing in. Many video games continue to struggle with disruptive, and in some cases, highly toxic communities. It becomes easier to understand the challenges if you think of a game community as being just like a real-world community. When the community is very small and contains respected elders, few controls and guard rails are needed. The community can police itself and its members are closely connected to each other and share a sense of responsibility for the community. However, if a community expands to become a massive city, problems will start to arise. The idea of a city without a set of laws to govern people’s behavior is absurd. Not only are such laws needed, but there also needs to be a group (typically the police and justice system) responsible for enforcing those laws. When those systems collapse, so do the cities. Is it a surprise then that games with millions of players have issues with crime, hate speech, harassment and other negative behaviors? It certainly shouldn’t be.

And this is why a code of ethics is vital to the future of virtual reality, augmented reality and all types of extended reality. These new mediums present new opportunities and challenges . Without careful consideration, there is considerable potential for harm and negative outcomes. Ethical conduct and ethical considerations should be a fundamental consideration in the design and implementation of all virtual reality technology, not an afterthought.

While no formal code of ethics exists for virtual reality, researchers such as Michael Madary have published numerous suggestions on how to approach the subject. We would be wise to pay attention.

Ethical considerations for virtual technologies

Almost all meaningful discussion of the ethical considerations for virtual reality and extended reality have taken place in academia. Many of the key participants in the commercial sphere have yet to take any meaningful stance on ethical considerations and there has been no industry-wide agreement on what types of ethical consideration to consider. Games represent a significant percentage of all virtual reality experiences and VR technology sales. Unfortunately, the games industry has been slow to tackle the many types of ethical challenge that VR presents.

Groups such as IEEE have advocated for an increased focus on ethics in all aspects of technology, not just virtual reality, but progress has been slow.

As previously discussed, the ethical considerations for virtual technologies are wide ranging, and should encompass VR content as well as the experience. As people spend more and more time in a virtual world, interacting with both real humans and virtual humans, ethical concerns will continue to rise. Again, the fundamental challenge with virtual reality is virtual reality’s underlying essence: everything you see and experience isn’t real. No matter how uplifting or disturbing your desired experience, literally anything is possible in virtual reality. In addition to ethical issues, there is wide ranging potential to impact mental health either positively or negatively.

Ethical decision making should clearly be a foundational component in the development of any virtual reality experience, but as yet, the industry has been slow to acknowledge this.

How ethics can be included in virtual reality design

The ethical implications for virtual reality, augmented reality, and extended reality are clearly complex. Participants in a virtual space, virtual experience or other type of virtual world need confidence that the experience will be what they expect, and that the environment and other users that they meet will conform to reasonable normative behavior for that environment.

In the information technology industry, there is often a general assumption that technology can solve all problems. Inevitably, given its current popularity, this leads to artificial intelligence being suggested as a solution. In the case of ethics virtual reality, this is almost certainly not the place to start from. Artificial intelligence in its current form is simply incapable of the level of nuance and understanding required to meaningfully address the problem.

It is perhaps useful to consider the evolution of game design in the modern video game industry. Game design was once a relatively small component of the game development process. For most game companies today, it represents a significant percentage of their overall effort. Game design no longer just concerns itself with basic elements of gameplay, but increasingly concerns itself with a much broader array of topics, including the ethical aspects of gameplay. The games industry is also working to improve its notions of informed consent for players, making sure players know what type of experience they are signing up for.

Including ethics in virtual reality design requires informed conversation and research. Much of the existing body of academic research on technology and ethics can be applied. However, developers must take the time to educate themselves and seriously consider the ethical aspects of their work.

As an emerging technology area gaining considerable momentum, the future of virtual reality, augmented reality and extended reality looks bright. Novel integrations of AR and VR with robotics and remote presence provide tantalizing glimpses of an exciting future. But to reach that bright future, ethical scrutiny is essential. Ethics and informed consent must become a foundational component in the development of any virtual world experience.

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Which stakeholders might benefit from a new age of VR 鈥渢ravel鈥? Which stakeholders might be harmed?

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SuperFly is an exciting new VR application that aims to change the way you vacation. Everyone knows that vacations, while definitely worth doing, are often accompanied by hassle, expense, and risk. Nobody wants their $20,000 vacation ruined by late flights, inattentive staff, or bad weather. SuperFly aims to give you the best of the vacation experience without the bad stuff, and all for a fraction of the cost of a traditional vacation. Even better, in an age where we鈥檙e all being more careful about our carbon footprint, SuperFly is the greener choice when it comes to travel.

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• Which ethical aspects are highlighted when you view the case through the ethical lenses of rights, justice, utilitarianism, virtue, care ethics, and the common good (discussed in the Framework for Ethical Decision Making )?

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One of the biggest barriers to finding a partner is how difficult it is to arrange first dates in a safe and comfortable way. First Date is a brand new VR dating app intended to help ease the stress and awkwardness of early dating.

First Date solves this problem by helping users to create spaces where they can virtually meet and go on dates. First Date helps to prevent fraudulent activity by requiring that all user avatars are digitally matched and verified by First Date staff against photo IDs provided by users. This seeks to ensure that an avatar’s age, sex, gender, and appearance match their user’s identity.

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Cheating: Atlanta’s School Scandal

Teachers and administrators at Parks Middle School adjust struggling students’ test scores in an effort to save their school from closure.

Cheating: Sign-Stealing in MLB

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Cheating: UNC’s Academic Fraud

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Cheney v. U.S. District Court

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Christina Fallin: “Appropriate Culturation?”

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Climate Change & the Paris Deal

While climate change poses many abstract problems, the actions (or inactions) of today’s populations will have tangible effects on future generations.

Cover-Up on Campus

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Covering Female Athletes

Sports Illustrated stirs controversy when their cover photo of an Olympic skier seems to focus more on her physical appearance than her athletic abilities.

Covering Yourself? Journalists and the Bowl Championship

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Cyber Harassment

After a student defames a middle school teacher on social media, the teacher confronts the student in class and posts a video of the confrontation online.

Defending Freedom of Tweets?

Running back Rashard Mendenhall receives backlash from fans after criticizing the celebration of the assassination of Osama Bin Laden in a tweet.

Dennis Kozlowski: Living Large

Dennis Kozlowski was an effective leader for Tyco in his first few years as CEO, but eventually faced criminal charges over his use of company assets.

Digital Downloads

File-sharing program Napster sparked debate over the legal and ethical dimensions of downloading unauthorized copies of copyrighted music.

Dr. V’s Magical Putter

Journalist Caleb Hannan outed Dr. V as a trans woman, sparking debate over the ethics of Hannan’s reporting, as well its role in Dr. V’s suicide.

East Germany’s Doping Machine

From 1968 to the late 1980s, East Germany (GDR) doped some 9,000 athletes to gain success in international athletic competitions despite being aware of the unfortunate side effects.

Ebola & American Intervention

Did the dispatch of U.S. military units to Liberia to aid in humanitarian relief during the Ebola epidemic help or hinder the process?

Edward Snowden: Traitor or Hero?

Was Edward Snowden’s release of confidential government documents ethically justifiable?

Ethical Pitfalls in Action

Why do good people do bad things? Behavioral ethics is the science of moral decision-making, which explores why and how people make the ethical (and unethical) decisions that they do.

Ethical Use of Home DNA Testing

The rising popularity of at-home DNA testing kits raises questions about privacy and consumer rights.

Flying the Confederate Flag

A heated debate ensues over whether or not the Confederate flag should be removed from the South Carolina State House grounds.

Freedom of Speech on Campus

In the wake of racially motivated offenses, student protests sparked debate over the roles of free speech, deliberation, and tolerance on campus.

Freedom vs. Duty in Clinical Social Work

What should social workers do when their personal values come in conflict with the clients they are meant to serve?

Full Disclosure: Manipulating Donors

When an intern witnesses a donor making a large gift to a non-profit organization under misleading circumstances, she struggles with what to do.

Gaming the System: The VA Scandal

The Veterans Administration’s incentives were meant to spur more efficient and productive healthcare, but not all administrators complied as intended.

German Police Battalion 101

During the Holocaust, ordinary Germans became willing killers even though they could have opted out from murdering their Jewish neighbors.

Head Injuries & American Football

Many studies have linked traumatic brain injuries and related conditions to American football, creating controversy around the safety of the sport.

Head Injuries & the NFL

American football is a rough and dangerous game and its impact on the players’ brain health has sparked a hotly contested debate.

Healthcare Obligations: Personal vs. Institutional

A medical doctor must make a difficult decision when informing patients of the effectiveness of flu shots while upholding institutional recommendations.

High Stakes Testing

In the wake of the No Child Left Behind Act, parents, teachers, and school administrators take different positions on how to assess student achievement.

In-FUR-mercials: Advertising & Adoption

When the Lied Animal Shelter faces a spike in animal intake, an advertising agency uses its moral imagination to increase pet adoptions.

Krogh & the Watergate Scandal

Egil Krogh was a young lawyer working for the Nixon Administration whose ethics faded from view when asked to play a part in the Watergate break-in.

Limbaugh on Drug Addiction

Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh argued that drug abuse was a choice, not a disease. He later became addicted to painkillers.

U.S. Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte’s “over-exaggeration” of an incident at the 2016 Rio Olympics led to very real consequences.

Meet Me at Starbucks

Two black men were arrested after an employee called the police on them, prompting Starbucks to implement “racial-bias” training across all its stores.

Myanmar Amber

Buying amber could potentially fund an ethnic civil war, but refraining allows collectors to acquire important specimens that could be used for research.

Negotiating Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy lawyer Gellene successfully represented a mining company during a major reorganization, but failed to disclose potential conflicts of interest.

Pao & Gender Bias

Ellen Pao stirred debate in the venture capital and tech industries when she filed a lawsuit against her employer on grounds of gender discrimination.

Pardoning Nixon

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Patient Autonomy & Informed Consent

Nursing staff and family members struggle with informed consent when taking care of a patient who has been deemed legally incompetent.

Prenatal Diagnosis & Parental Choice

Debate has emerged over the ethics of prenatal diagnosis and reproductive freedom in instances where testing has revealed genetic abnormalities.

Reporting on Robin Williams

After Robin Williams took his own life, news media covered the story in great detail, leading many to argue that such reporting violated the family’s privacy.

Responding to Child Migration

An influx of children migrants posed logistical and ethical dilemmas for U.S. authorities while intensifying ongoing debate about immigration.

Retracting Research: The Case of Chandok v. Klessig

A researcher makes the difficult decision to retract a published, peer-reviewed article after the original research results cannot be reproduced.

Sacking Social Media in College Sports

In the wake of questionable social media use by college athletes, the head coach at University of South Carolina bans his players from using Twitter.

Selling Enron

Following the deregulation of electricity markets in California, private energy company Enron profited greatly, but at a dire cost.

Snyder v. Phelps

Freedom of speech was put on trial in a case involving the Westboro Baptist Church and their protesting at the funeral of U.S. Marine Matthew Snyder.

Something Fishy at the Paralympics

Rampant cheating has plagued the Paralympics over the years, compromising the credibility and sportsmanship of Paralympian athletes.

Sports Blogs: The Wild West of Sports Journalism?

Deadspin pays an anonymous source for information related to NFL star Brett Favre, sparking debate over the ethics of “checkbook journalism.”

Stangl & the Holocaust

Franz Stangl was the most effective Nazi administrator in Poland, killing nearly one million Jews at Treblinka, but he claimed he was simply following orders.

Teaching Blackface: A Lesson on Stereotypes

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The Astros’ Sign-Stealing Scandal

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The Central Park Five

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The CIA Leak

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The Collapse of Barings Bank

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The Costco Model

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The FBI & Apple Security vs. Privacy

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The Miss Saigon Controversy

When a white actor was cast for the half-French, half-Vietnamese character in the Broadway production of Miss Saigon , debate ensued.

The Sandusky Scandal

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The Varsity Blues Scandal

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Welfare Reform

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Wells Fargo and Moral Emotions

In a settlement with regulators, Wells Fargo Bank admitted that it had created as many as two million accounts for customers without their permission.

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Examples of VR used for Training – Industry Case Studies

June 21, 2023 - Dom Barnard

This article discusses case studies which highlight how virtual reality (VR) has been used to provide training solutions across different industries and business sectors.

1. Verizon & STRIVR: Customer service training

Immersive learning allows employees to practise dealing with difficult customers and challenging situations in a safe environment, where they can build up their skills and confidence.

The American telecommunications company, Verizon, decided to use VR training to better prepare and train their call-center employees, where handling difficult customers is a routine occurrence.

Learning aims and objectives

The aim of the virtual training was to upskill customer service staff to be empathetic towards their customers and develop a better understanding of their needs; coaching employees to consistently deliver excellent customer service.

Within the VR environment, trainees have the sensation of feeling and thinking like another person. This allows them to interact and have similar emotional responses to those their customers would experience in conversations.

By going through this process, the employee can better understand why the customer is upset, the causes of their frustration, how to de-escalate tense situations and build empathy rather than resentment.

Insights from the training

From research and experience, it was concluded that verbal fluency is a key predictor for a person’s capacity to manage a difficult situation. Therefore, during the VR training, verbal fluency was analysed to measure trainees´ comfort and confidence levels as they practised de-escalating conversations with unhappy customers in the virtual environment.

The group practiced 3 times in VR, and by the end of the training, the employees:

• Had significantly improved their levels of calmness during difficult conversations
• Verbal fluency improved considerably
• Were more confident, sure of themselves, and relaxed
• All of these are key components for customer satisfaction and de-escalation of difficult conversations.

Learn more:  VR Customer Service Training

2. GE Healthcare & Immerse: Transforming radiography training

In the past, radiographers have had to use an actual CT scanner to practise their skills. This was incredibly challenging due to the cost and scarcity of the scanners.

This was the driver for GE Healthcare exploring the use of VR to train their radiographers. The aim was to increase the availability of training to more radiographers across different procedures.

“VR training adds great value because of being able to experience a CCTA set up without holding up the room or patient list” – Senior radiographer, GE Healthcare.

What happened

A new VR experience was created that closely simulated the hundreds of steps that radiologists need to take during real-life procedures, when operating the CT machines.

Computer-based software simulations were included and at the same time the system allowed trainees to make mistakes in a safe environment.

A senior CTCA-accredited radiographer described feeling “right at home” after spending an hour in the simulation.

• Quicker and more frequent radiology training
• Increases the time that actual CT scanners are operational, as they are not being used for training
• During VR training, trainees make decisions and calculations, based on real scans
• Real-time data from training to provide feedback and review
• Easily scalable as all the VR training is accessible online

Learn more:  GE Healthcare: Transforming radiography with VR training

3. Vodafone & VirtualSpeech: Improving presentation skills

Vodafone is a global leader in technology communications through mobile, broadband and TV. The key goal for the team at VirtualSpeech was to recreate the Vodafone UK Pavilion in VR and provide additional VR training scenarios, so that employees could practice their presentation skills in the safety of the virtual world, before delivering presentations in real life.

In VR, employees can practice in various virtual environments, upload their presentation slides, receive AI-powered feedback, as well as track progress within the VR app. Managers can also track learner completion and progress, and more easily measure ROI.

Benefits of the VR training experience

Employees have the opportunity for on-demand, realistic practice in the Vodafone Pavilion before delivering a presentation in the Pavilion in front of a real audience

Learners receive feedback on their performance, which they can instantly use to improve, tracking their performance each time they practice

Employees can practice a range of other presentation and soft skills in the additional VirtualSpeech VR scenarios provided, such as a meeting room, sales pitch, and press conference

Performance analytics and feedback data provided within the app ensures employees know which areas they need to work on, and managers or admins can view learner’s areas of strength and improvements as well

Result highlights

• Built a customised virtual environment ready for deployment in 4 weeks
• 91% of learners would like to see more VR training at Vodafone
• 93% of employees would recommend VirtualSpeech to a colleague

Learn more:  Building the Vodafone Pavilion in VR for employees to practice presentation skills

4. Johnson & Johnson Institute & Osso VR: Enhancing surgical training

Embracing state-of-the-art medical technology

The way that surgeons train has not altered a great deal in the last century. Technology may have improved considerably, but surgeons do not typically have the time to learn and upskill. This is particularly the case as mastering the competences to carry out a new procedure necessitates a high amount of repetition. Also, aside from the question of time required for training, the long-established methods for training do not accurately measure the surgeons’ progress.

Given this context, it is no surprise that VR has become part of the modern surgical training experience. The first step took place in 2017 when Johnson & Johnson created VR simulations to train surgeons how to implant orthopedic devices. This type of training was then developed and expanded by Osso VR.

The scalability allows them to easily deploy hundreds or thousands of VR headsets for training

The beauty of training surgeons in VR is that they can learn all the steps in the procedures in a lifelike setting without any risk to patients. This greatly contributes to error reduction and increased efficiency in the real world

Throughout the Covid-19 crisis there has been an increase in requests from medical centres who wish to keep up training even if many surgeries have been cancelled. “Medical centers do not want to reach a situation of shortage of trained surgeons, so this becomes an emergency,” says Mauri.

• Students trained with OSSO VR obtained a score 233% greater than those who used passive learning tools
• Students who used OSSO VR completed 252% more steps than students trained with passive tools

Learn more:  Driving greater adoption of cutting-edge medical technology

5. Nestlé Purina: Empowering a sales team

Nestlé Purina is the global leader of the pet food industry. The company started by creating virtual reality tours of their factories, which allow salespeople to see first-hand how the company produces its pet food. The idea is that the salespeople would have a clearer understanding of the production process, be better informed, and in turn inspire more trust with their clients.

Another area in which Nestlé Purina has used VR is retail shelf planning. Data is collected and analysed to plan the most effective retail shelf displays. This is then adjusted in VR, based on up-to-date sales figures and presented to store managers to optimise their planograms.

Nestlé are also using VR to help connect salespeople who are based in different locations. The disparate team can now all meet in the same virtual location and use dynamic tools, such as whiteboards to conduct meetings and training sessions. This is encouraging the creation of a more technically savvy workforce.

• From training 10 salespeople per month in VR, Nestlé saved USD 100k, per year in travel and lost productivity
• VR training delivered clear improvements in line with OSHA standards

Learn more:  Empowering a sales team to become top dog

6. Intel & HTC Vive: Reducing electrical accidents

Intel created a virtual Electrical Safety Recertification course, which is estimated to have a 300% ROI over five years.

Intel saw the benefits of investing in VR specifically around the reduction of total cost of ownership, more effective training, staff motivation and retention. Alongside this, they identified the ability to create immersive training environments where colleagues can learn by doing in a low risk setting.

The Electrical Safety Recertification course that Intel developed in VR presented trainees with cutting-edge VR content, clear learning outcomes, risk management scenarios, and controlled 360 feedback.

Outcomes and benefits

• Intel improved their training offer by using VR and recorded a 5-Year ROI of 300%
• The trainees enjoyed VR training, with 94% wanting more virtual training
• Reduced training total cost of ownership
• Increased trainee retention and motivation

Going forward

Following the success of the VR course, Intel approved a global-scale deployment of the project, essentially becoming the framework for their VR-based training throughout the business.

Learn more:  Intel Enhances Training With VR, Sees 5-Year ROI of 300%

7. Varjo & Boeing: Astronaut VR training

Preparing astronauts for crewed space missions is a meticulous and critical process that requires extensive practice and training. The Boeing Starliner flight-test crew in Houston understands the significance of innovative training methods to ensure the success of their missions.

Docking to the International Space Station (ISS) is a complex operation, and they have embraced immersive virtual reality (VR) environments provided by Varjo for training purposes. This advanced VR training allows the crew to practice precise procedures and prepares them for unexpected events that may arise during the mission.

By simulating dangerous situations and refining their responses and decision-making abilities, VR training plays a crucial role in enhancing mission safety. Varjo’s high-quality visual fidelity enables astronauts to train with precision, immersing themselves in realistic spacecraft environments.

Through VR simulations, the crew can effectively practice and improve their skills without exposing themselves to real-life risks. Ultimately, the integration of VR training significantly contributes to mission safety and paves the way for future advancements in astronaut preparation for space exploration endeavors.

“The ability to connect and jointly train astronauts from various countries, agencies, and private partnerships will be especially important as human spaceflight becomes more commercialized and accessible to everyone.” Jim May – Spaceflight Training Software Engineer, Boeing

Learn more:  A New Era in Astronaut Training using VR

8. NHS & Make Real: Blood identification and grouping

Blood type identification is a simple and common process, but the effects of getting it wrong can be devastating. Even a small amount of transfused blood of the wrong type can very quickly cause serious illness and death.

The primary purpose of this experience was to show how quickly blood agglutination can occur when different blood types are mixed.

The aim is to build understanding around how important it is to select the right blood type for transfusions and what can quickly go wrong for the patient if you don’t.

Make Real and NHSBT worked together to develop the product. They chose the Oculus Quest headset, which offers 6DoF tracking, high performance and can be used as a standalone headset, allowing it to be easily deployed within hospital training environments.

Initial feedback was positive but due to the deployment date and impact of COVID-19 upon the NHS and wider health sectors. Full-scale rollout deployment and testing has been put on hold temporarily as associated stakeholders have been positioned within the emergency response teams.

Learn more:  Blood Identification VR

9. UPS Prepares Drivers for Road Hazards with VR

The UPS driver training program utilizes VR to allow students to practice their driving skills and develop their ability to identify and handle hazards on the road within a simulated environment. This approach enables drivers to gain valuable experience and prepare for real-life challenges they may encounter while driving.

The driver simulation in VR provides a comprehensive experience that encompasses various road hazards, including pedestrians, parked cars, and oncoming traffic. By exposing drivers to these scenarios in a safe and controlled virtual environment, UPS ensures that they are equipped to handle similar challenges when they are on the road.

Deb Pockette, UPS Integrad project manager, emphasizes the value of training drivers in realistic conditions, particularly for new drivers. The VR simulation captures all the essential aspects that UPS wants drivers to experience before they start driving on actual roads, leading to safer and more competent drivers.

UPS recognizes the importance of embracing technology to maintain a competitive edge and foster a modern workplace. To facilitate this, the company has recently introduced a mobile training academy, consisting of two 53-foot-long trailers, which brings all the training concepts taught in traditional UPS driver training facilities directly to students.

These mobile trailers incorporate virtual reality and augmented reality kiosks, enabling students to benefit from immersive and interactive training experiences.

As UPS continues to advance its training facilities, the integration of VR simulation technology will be extended to all UPS Integrad training centers.

Learn more:  UPS Driver Training with VR

10. Volkswagen: Development using VR glasses

Volkswagen has been utilizing virtual reality (VR) tools in various areas of its operations, including technical development, assembly planning, and factory logistics. These VR tools have proven to be time-saving, process-simplifying, and collaboration-enhancing, ultimately increasing efficiency within the company. Here are three examples of how Volkswagen uses virtual workflows:

Driving Simulator in Technical Development:

Volkswagen’s Virtual Reality Center of Excellence (VRK) is responsible for creating driving simulators that allow new vehicle concepts to be experienced at an early stage. Developers use VR glasses to visualize the driving environment and evaluate aspects such as control elements, customer experience, and functionality.

The driving simulator provides a realistic driving experience and helps identify potential improvements in vehicle ergonomics. By using VR, Volkswagen accelerates development processes and reduces resource consumption.

Virtual Assembly Planning:

Volkswagen uses VR in its 3P workshops (Production Preparation Process) where assembly lines are set up or modified. Traditionally, physical prototypes made of plywood and cardboard were used to plan assembly processes, but these prototypes are costly.

By transitioning to virtual meetings, participants can use VR to simulate assembly cycles, identify ergonomic issues, and optimize processes. The digital representation of production facilities forms the basis for creating 3D visualizations, and participants act as avatars in the simulation. This approach allows Volkswagen to detect errors earlier, reduce costs, and streamline assembly processes.

VR in Logistics:

Volkswagen employs virtual reality to introduce new logistics processes and enhance efficiency. VR workshops are conducted to modify workflows related to new IT systems and software in logistics. By using VR applications, employees can virtually navigate and interact with the logistics processes, understand new features, and actively contribute to shaping the processes.

This approach improves collaboration among planners, IT specialists, and logistics experts. VR simulations enable employees to learn and test digital systems and tools, making it easier to analyze vulnerabilities, manage changes, and enhance routine operations.

Overall, Volkswagen’s adoption of VR tools in various areas of its operations has enabled the company to save time, reduce costs, simplify processes, and enhance collaboration and efficiency.

These virtual workflows contribute to Volkswagen’s sustainability goals by minimizing the need for physical prototypes, reducing material consumption, and eliminating the need for extensive business travel.

Learn more:  How Volkswagen uses virtual workflows

See how VR is transforming business.

“The Oculus Quest was phenomenal in getting us to move faster. Now we don’t have the wires, and we have a mobile package that works for us.”

“Research indicates that the closer you can bring a learner to the actual work environment, the more they will learn and retain. Virtual Reality does just that. It is absolutely the future of learning.”

“The world doesn’t have enough access to safe healthcare because there aren’t enough trained surgeons. VR tools can help solve this global crisis.”

“With Oculus and PrecisionOS, we can take a resident through a hard case and have them do the most difficult part 5, 10, 15, 20 times. We can look at what they did, how they did it, see the metrics, and have them do it again to develop mastery.”

“We can safely immerse people in the shipment process. That’s where VR really works for our business.”

“VR has allowed us to provide more empathy and a better experience to our customers.”

“If anybody is going to make VR the next big thing in clean energy, it’s Facebook.”

“With Oculus Quest…I could roam from meeting room to meeting room and rapidly deploy the system with a project team.”

“VR will empower us to train the workforce of the future. With VR, we can improve training effectiveness and enable teammates to train any time and as many times as needed at no additional cost.”

“Our ability to deploy Gemba training onOculus Quest headsets to teams around the world means we will be able to collaborate like never before and provide a consistent, high-quality learning experience”

“Visualization in real 3D versus a flat screen transforms things, and it helps accelerate the process of discovery.”

Product Software

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