Use cases for VR in government organizations have multiplied over the years and continue to grow as agencies adapt many of the best practices deployed in the private sector for many types of applications such as training, design and manufacturing, and data visualization. VR can simplify the complexities and limitations of working in secure environments by connecting teams more effectively, enhancing creativity and accelerating design cycles faster than your adversaries.
Despite the opportunities that VR represents, a major barrier to any technology adoption for organizations that require authority to operate (ATO) is access to hardware that meets specific security and privacy requirements. While government leaders recognize the benefits of VR, security limitations have historically made it a less viable option — until now.
VR Designed for Privacy, Safety in Secure Environments
The VIVE Pro Secure, which is now operating in a wide range of secure environments across the country, is the result of years of coordination between HTC VIVE and numerous U.S. government organizations, and addresses the key barriers to adoption so these organizations can tap into room-scale VR. This first-of-its-kind system includes secure hardware modifications and access to the Offline SteamVR library, which allows installation in a secure environment without connecting to the Internet. It also provides increased mobility compared to current CAVE solutions, allowing users to fully immerse themselves in a virtual environment with fewer limitations.The team at Virtalis, which delivers turnkey solutions for teams to connect virtually for workplace tasks and processes such as collaborative design reviews, simulations and immersive training, has experienced firsthand the value of the VIVE Pro Secure, helping them transform the way they design, build and deliver complex system solutions to their customers.
According to Virtalis, “For commercial markets, we already know that virtual reality is a proven technology that is used for engineering, manufacturing and training simulations; however, with the VIVE Pro Secure system and leadership from Virtalis, we’ve been able to realize this value within our own secure environments, allowing us to leverage virtual reality for cross-site collaboration, which has been the key to accelerating our product development cycles.”
Proven Use Cases for Classified Environments
VR offers organizations new ways to engage and train their workforce, with a key advantage of being able to place trainees in simulated scenarios that may be too difficult, dangerous or expensive to replicate in real life. According to Virtalis, “The VIVE Pro Secure has changed the entire way that we train personnel. Many of our service procedures vary in complexity and some are more dangerous than others, so not only do we simulate and record single-operator procedures, but we also simulate team-based operations regularly. The VIVE Pro Secure, when coupled with Virtalis’ advanced visualization software, has allowed us to reduce risk and realize unseen value that we never even knew existed.”Designers, engineers and product managers are incorporating VR to better visualize and collaborate on virtual scale designs in real time without having to produce physical mock-ups — which helps to reduce risk, identify design flaws and get products into the field faster. For example, with virtual mock-ups and interactive modeling, Bell was able to save millions of dollars in prototype production costs and create a full-scale model aircraft in just six months — a process that usually takes five to seven years. Using VR to visualize a full-scale model right from the beginning, pilots can experience the aircraft as if they were inside an actual model, allowing them to provide faster and more specific feedback, greatly reducing the overall design cycle.
Using VIVE solutions, government entities find value through visualization that reaches beyond design and manufacturing use cases. Connecting disparate sources of data through VR into a single, secure location, organizations can further reduce risk by improving predictability — from tracking information such as weather or traffic patterns, to threat assessments in specific locations.
While government use of VR is still in its infancy, there’s a lot of appetite for innovation in this space, starting with the VIVE Pro Secure.
The VIVE Pro Secure is available now
