Learning in the third dimension for the gamer generation

Using mixed reality technology to train Arab fire service personnel.

imsimity GmbH provides solutions for the visualisation of complex learning content and processes in the areas of mathematics, natural sciences and technology, and also in the areas of art and sport. These solutions are targeted at customers from all sectors and areas of business. The company uses mixed reality technologies, including virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), which makes a wide range of phenomena easier to grasp and understand.

Virtual reality (VR) is a digital learning world generated with the aid of computer technology and is at the heart of the teaching and learning methods of the cyber classroom. What is special about this method is the fullest possible immersion of the user in a stereo 3D visualized reality. As many of the users' senses as possible are exposed to a wide range of stimuli via its interfaces. Depth perception means that users feel fully integrated and part of the VR learning world in the cyber classroom.

Interactive use heightens the feeling of full integration. Users are able to move intuitively in the virtual reality, and can explore and change objects. Virtual reality makes it possible to experience events in three dimensions - in reality this is unachievable as events might occur too quickly or be entirely invisible, for example air flows and magnetic fields.

Within augmented reality, additional information can be provided, processes can be analysed, and situations can be experienced interactively via the ingenious "Augmentation" of reality. This increases understanding and contributes to a more permanent transfer of knowledge.

By superimposing real objects with digital data, AR applications provide effective opportunities, particularly in service training, for teaching the procedures required in commissioning or repair. For example, information can be positioned in an entirely new way, precisely where it is required - in the user's field of vision.

Virtual objects are embedded in real time in a recorded video image in such a way that they are correctly positioned in terms of space and perspective, and augment the actual image. This can be displayed a number of ways including via data glasses (wearables), smartphones or tablets.

The 3D/VR learning software from imsimity is available for a range of target groups in different editions, including general schools and vocational schools, universities, and development departments in companies. imsimity provides mixed reality learning platforms for both German customers and international consumers.

Together with the German Fire Protection Association (GFPA) GmbH, imsimity has used the cyber classroom to develop a fire protection information course in virtual reality for the Kuwait Fire Academy. This course, developed entirely in Arabic, simulates how people respond to a fire in enclosed spaces, such as apartments and schools, and makes it possible to provide virtual firefighting training using different fire extinguishing methods.

In a further development stage, and taking this course as the basis, the CyberLearnIT fire platform is currently being created. This is an education and training platform for professional and voluntary fire service personnel in the Arab region.

It also provides training for fire service personnel in specific work activities, for example fire truck operators. The integration of 360 degree videos and 3D models, which allow simulations to be conducted, saves on the costs the procurement and maintenance of exhibits and experimental technology and enables extinguishing experiments to be safely conducted.

imsimity was created as a spin-off from the High Performance Computing Center of the University of Stuttgart and has been working in the fields of virtual and augmented reality for more than 15 years. For 12 years, imsimity has been hosting the "Virtual Fires Congress" at the company's present location in St Georgen in the Black Forest. This has now become the largest specialist convention on the themes of virtual reality simulation and serious gaming in the field of security and safety.