Building Virtual Environments for Optimizing Learning Processes inside the Modern Organization

• Author: Dragos Sebastian Cristea, Luminita Arhip, Marius Ivanov, Cristina Chelariu, Carmen-Catalina Rusu
• Position: Assistant Professor, University Dunarea de Jos, Romania/Philologue, SC ALTFACTOR SRL, Galati, Romania/Engineer, SC ALTFACTOR SRL, Galati, Romania/Philologue, SC ALTFACTOR SRL, Galati, Romania/Senior Lecturer, PhD, University Dunarea de Jos, Romania
• Pages: 234-249

European Integration - Realities and Perspectives. Proceedings 2019

234

Building Virtual Environments for Optimizing

Learning Processes inside the Modern Organization

Dragos Sebastian Cristea1, Luminița Arhip2, Marius Ivanov3, Cristina Chelariu4,

Carmen-Catalina Rusu5

Abstract: This article presents different ways in which new virtual reality technologies can be used in the

development of software applications dedicated to supporting organizational learning/training processes. Thus,

virtual reality can offer employees of enterprises in the Romanian economy access to an advanced training

system by creating virtual environments that simulate real scenarios in which users have total freedom of

movement and interaction with the constituent elements. Virtual Reality addresses to senses and perception.

The VR technologies presented in this article address not only basic senses such as vision or hearing, but also

senses such as balance or intuition. Thus, the brain is helped by the entire sensory system to receive a rich flow

of information that starts from the environment and comes to mind. Therefore, if we present the artificially

created information to the senses, the way in which reality is perceived will also be altered. In this context, we

will also present the current state of the virtual reality technologies t hat can be used to implement VR

applications as well as the essential principles applicable to the development of virtual reality applications. At

the same time, the article shows how the use of virtual reality can support the three important aspects of

vocational training: work experience - users having the opportunity to be in unfamiliar workplaces in a 360

degree perspective, learning skills – virtual reality helps to identify the balance between acquiring knowledge

and training the experience, allowing the same scenarios to be scanned several times, without additional costs

or inconveniences, access to a different perspective - allowing the user to perform actions normally performed

by experienced employees .

Keywords: virtual reality; organizational learning; virtual environments; refresh rate; VR glasses

1. Introduction

Although virtual reality has been discussed since the late 1980s, it has taken a major stance in 2010 with

the first version of Oculus Rift. Since then, various projects have been created and developed that have

contributed to the development of the VR domain. Virtual reality is by no means a new concept. This

combination of words emerged before the 1950s, first through illustrations and texts describing an

alternative reality and then machines that mimicked the consumer’s journey into unknown worlds. From

the very beginning, VR was introduced to be a ble to immerse the us er into an a lternative world,

1 Assistant Professor, University Dunarea de Jos, Romania, Address: Strada Domnească 47, Galați, Romania, Tel.: 0336 130

108, Corresponding author: dragoscristea@yahoo.com

2 Philologue, SC ALTFACTOR SRL, Galati, Romania, Address: Strada Portului 7, Galați 800032, Romania, Tel.: 0236 407

030.

3 Engineer, SC ALTFACTOR SRL, Galati, Romania, Address: Strada Portului 7, Galați 800032, Romania, Tel.: 0236 407 030

4 Philologue, SC ALTFACTOR SRL, Galati, Romania, Address: Strada Portului 7, Galați 800032, Romania, Tel.: 0236 407

030.

5 Senior Lecturer, PhD, University Dunarea de Jos, Romania, Address: Strada Domnească 47, Galați, Romania, Tel.: 0336 130

108.

ISSN: 2067 – 9211 Performance and Risks in the European Economy

235

including him and allowing him to interact with the environment, giving him the feeling of being

elsewhere, and being able to move and make decisions in real time. In the 1970s there were attempts to

build the “magic t heater”, with a rather small success. T he world of video games was the one that, in

the late 1980s and early 1990s, gave a new impetus to this technology. Releases suc h as Sega VR or

Virtual Boy Nintendo have tried t o bring the user into the game with rudimentary headphones (compared

to today’s), but have enjoyed rather limited succ ess. These, however, were just the beginning of what

was to come. T he world of entertainment continues to spur the creation of a new technology that will

change the way we enjoy the content. Virtual reality can be defined as a set of tec hnologies and devices

that, combined, a re used to create immersive simulation in a three-dimensional environment. The virtual

environment is a r eal-world replica and is achieved using three-dimensional settings, such as in-depth

perception, sound and tools such as consoles, to allow the user to interact with it. The user’s movement

is tr acked using either a head-mounted device or sensors. Virtual reality is used in a wide range of

applications such as video games, engineering, education, psychological therapy, e-commerce,

marketing, etc. For example, virtual reality is used in games as a third person to interact with separate

parts of the virtual world. At the same time, bot h in engineering and education, mechanical modeling,

using CAD software, allows engineers, students and stud ents to develop and manipulate models crea ted

in a way similar to physical objects (Neelakantam, 2017). Designing a fair virtual reality implies a good

understanding of both perception and technology. It involves good c ommunication between man and

machine, indicating what are the possible interactions, what is happening at the moment or what might

happen in the future. The design of human-centered virtual reality is based on real-world observations

and is not based solely on software/hardware and engineering consi derations, but is also based on th e

understanding of human beha vior and how our mind works. Achieving an ideal virtual reality allows

the user to physically walk ar ound objects in the virtual environment as well as in the real world. A

number of major products have emerged in the market in 2016, from companies like Oculus VR, Sony

and Google. S ince the a cquisition of Oculus, Facebook has already bought 11 AR/ VR companies, which

indicates its intention to make the VR and AR the next border. The large investments and acquisitions

of the giants suggest that these technologies will become an integral pa rt of the platforms that pr ovide

us with content. According to recent estima tes by Goldman Sachs, the AR and VR markets will grow to

95 billion by 2025. The greatest demand for this type of technology comes from the creative industries

- the gaming industry, live events, video entertainment and retail - but will find even wider applications

in sectors such as health, education, military and real estate.

2. Virtual Reality Technologies Review

First category of Virtual Reality technologies is r epresented by PC based systems. HTC Vive is the VR

system created in colla boration with the Valve giant. It attaches to a PC and works through the well-

known gaming system Steam by Va lve. Currently it is considered t o be the best VR system in the market.

The 70 sensors that Vive comes with offer t he 360-degree headset location and a 90 Hz refresh rate,

which reduces the delay between frames (decreasing the latency), delay that could cause mot ion

sickness. Normally, threshold f or compelling VR must be at or below 20 milliseconds of latency. When

latency exceeds 60 millisec onds, disjunction between one’s hea d motions and the motions of the virtual

world start to feel out of sync, causing disc omfort and disorientation. Fortunately, t his is not a very

common problem with the applications available for HTC Vive. Users should consider not only the price

that is not very fr iendly (not including your PC here), but also the generous space that HTC Vive needs.