Virtual Reality zone
Here, KWR employees can safely collaborate with partners or explore data and models in VR
What do we see here?
The markings on the ground form boundaries within which KWR colleagues immersed in Virtual Reality (VR) can safely move. There may actually be colleagues with VR glasses on their faces. They do not see the cascade and the wooden floor, but a virtual world presented to them through the VR glasses. In this virtual world, they delve into a complex data set or an elaborate digital twin, or brainstorm with project partners on the other side of Europe, while using 3D pen drawings to illustrate their ideas.
What's this pilot for?
Virtual Reality and the Metaverse, the next generation Internet, a network of 3D virtual worlds, promise us immersive interactions with our employees and customers remotely, with digital twins, models and data sets. This allows us to collaborate remotely in ways not possible with applications like Teams and Zoom - in VR, you actually imagine yourself in the same room. How and to what extent VR can contribute to this, we need to determine experimentally. How does co-creation work in VR? Can we reduce air travel and thus CO2 emissions? Will we really get more out of data this way? Also keeping in mind possible drawbacks surrounding privacy, security, and physiological issues.
Who is behind this?
The first experiments with VR were conducted as part of the EU Water Futures project. In collaboration with KWR's IT department, the VR glasses have now been made available to all KWR employees.
