All That Glitters is Not Gold!

The Inconvenient Truths About VR-Based Goggle Training

By Lon Bartel and Bob Ferris
It is tempting to embrace VR training. After all, VR headsets are high-tech, 'cool' and will surely be well received by millennials, right? Actually, like so many things in life, the truth is more complicated.

Training?

We'll start with the fundamentals. Is the trainee receiving important and valid training? If de-escalation training is needed, then realistic and accurate human appearance, speech and movement is needed, otherwise any outcome during training would be dismissed since it could be due to the lack of realism. Likewise, if marksmanship training is needed then a realistic and accurately tracked weapon is needed, otherwise any outcomes during training would be dismissed since they could be due to a lack of realism of the simulated weapon. If both de-escalation and marksmanship are to be trained the problems are only magnified. Imagine practicing on a simulator that shows video game characters without emotion and the impact of your rounds are 5 inches to the left. You are told that you failed the hostage scenario, but did you? If the hostage taker was a real human, you could have read their body language, the look in their eyes, the tightness of their grip and if you fired a real pistol, you're pretty sure you would have hit the hostage taker instead of the hostage. If you adjust to the training, intentionally firing 5 inches to the right, you might do better in the next scenario but far worse in real life. This situation is a text book example of the term 'negative training'. Especially in 2021 America, few topics are more critically impactful than proper police de-escalation training. Valid training is more important now than maybe any other time in history.
One inconvenient problem lies with human realism. For VR headset-based training, it is very common to use computer game-looking avatars. Keep in mind people are astonishingly good at reading subtle clues presented by humans in real encounters, but can't 'read' these computer-generated avatar humans. This all but eliminates the effectiveness of gaining new insights and skills during the training session. You know you're on the wrong path when a trainee reports to their fellow officers candidly afterward, 'the avatars were a joke - nothing like talking with a person in real life.'
Officers must rely on subtle verbal cues in de-escalation and judgmental use of force situations in order to predict what might happen next. This is how officers make decisions that could result in them raising their tone of voice, lowering a weapon or choosing to fire in the blink of an eye.
Our reliance on these subtle cues and nuances is reinforced by multiple research studies, which state, on average, we place 55% importance on body language, 38% importance on tone of voice and 7% importance on the words spoken by the other individual³,⁴.
If over 50% of a person's decision-making is based on non-verbal communication alone, then naturally, computer avatars don't equal effective training. At least for decision making training when human interaction is important. But a solution exists. Certified video-based training is needed, as it utilizes photorealistic people who present accurate cues for officers-making life-saving training
effective. Since video-based training varies immensely from supplier to supplier, it's equally important that the simulation training content be high-quality and certified by IADLEST or another respected international association.

Show Stoppers

If you've ever experienced sea sickness, you know the definition of a 'show stopper'. All that matters is getting back to normal. A common mistake is to overlook what is known as 'Simulator Sickness' or 'Cybersickness'. For many individuals, this results in disorientation, nausea and/or eye fatigue².
To understand the risks of VR training, departments must first understand how it effects people. A recent study² analyzed the severity of VR sickness against various ages, genders, prior VR experiences and more. What they discovered is that VR sickness can plague anyone-meaning that it does not matter how seasoned an officer is, their gender or frequency of training, they may experience VR sickness.
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