Skip to content
Digital Bodies Consulting
  • HOME
  • SPEAKING / WORKSHOPS
  • VR EXPERIENCES
    • VR VIDEOS
  • NEW FRONTIER OF LEARNING
  • CONSULTING SERVICES
  • ABOUT

Digital Bodies » Learning » SenseGlove’s Innovative Workforce Training for UK Rail Operator

SenseGlove’s Innovative Workforce Training for UK Rail Operator

July 4, 2022 by Emory Craig
Senseglove workforce training with LNER railway operator

SenseGlove, a company at the forefront of haptic feedback, is partnering with the UK rail operator London North Eastern Railway (LNER) to provide innovative workforce training for railway employees. The XR experience utilizes haptic gloves to help workers learn how to assemble platform train ramps for passengers with disabilities. It reveals how haptic developments are critical for workforce training and the challenges we still face in developing fully realistic training scenarios.

The SenseGlove Partnership with LNER

According to XR industry news site Auganix,

The wireless SenseGlove Nova features a flexible form-factor in combination with haptic and hand tracking technologies that enable users to feel size, density, stiffness, impacts and resistance in VR. Nova’s touch-enabling technology can be used for a variety of VR training programs, such as training to handle hazardous materials, carrying out complex tasks with multiple tools and objects, learning to design and test physical prototypes.

SenseGlove added that features play an especially important role for assembly training, since force-feedback gloves allow wearers to feel the parts of equipment that need to be assembled as well as ascertain the difference between the sizes and densities of different parts. Furthermore, trainees can feel every impact when they connect or insert parts, as well as vibration when they work with tools such as drilling machines, thanks to Nova’s vibrotactile feedback.

Here’s a short video of the SenseGlove experience for the LNER:

The advantages here are obvious. Instead of the LNER sidelining an entire train (or even a single car) to allow new employees to practice using a boarding ramp, they can do it virtually and repeat it as often as needed. SenseGlove’s haptic feedback provides a deeper sense of presence by letting users feel the key, door, and ramp components. For work that involves the physical movement of components, it’s an essential dimension.

Shrinking Our Haptic Devices and Sensing Weight

As good as this is, we’re still not where we need to be with haptic feedback solutions. The SenseGlove used in the video requires that you attach your VR controllers to the gloves for tracking. While you won’t see or feel the controllers while wearing an HMD, it’s still awkward and means you can unnaturally bump your hands against real-world objects.

The company’s latest solution, SenseGlove Nova, does away with the hand-controller requirement by using built-in tracking. We’ve been closely following SenseGlove’s developments and the Nova version significantly cuts down the device’s size. This is the future of haptic design.

The new SenseGlove Nova doesn't require that you attach your hand-controllers.

One major challenge that remains for haptic feedback in XR experiences is weight. As much as SenseGlove adds a haptic dimension to LNER’s workforce training experiences, it can’t begin to incorporate the feeling of weight that a boarding ramp will have for LNER staff. Haptic tech will eventually develop a solution for sensing this dimension, but that’s still some years down the road.

As the LNER application illustrates, SenseGlove reveals how haptic feedback is already transforming workforce training in fascinating ways.

 

Emory Craig

Emory Craig is a writer, speaker, and VR consultant with extensive experience in art, new media, and higher education. He speaks at global conferences on innovation, education, and ethical technology in the future. He has published widely and worked with the US Agency for International Development, the United Nations, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Living at the intersection of learning, games, and immersive storytelling, he is fascinated by AI-based avatars, digital twins, and the ethical implications of blurring the boundaries between the real and the virtual.

Related

Tim Cook on an Apple AR Device – “I Couldn’t be More Excited”
Goodbye Facebook! Meta Finally Ends the Facebook Account Requirement

Our Consulting Services

Our consulting services include workshops, demos, keynote talks, and project management on XR, Metaverse, and the latest developments in Conversational AI and ChatGPT. We work with education, nonprofits, NGOs, and business organizations around the world to provide innovative solutions for implementing XR, AI and emerging technologies.

Why not schedule a free discovery call to see how Digital Bodies Consulting can help you?

The Future of Learning in the Metaverse with Maya Georgieva

SXSWedu talk On The Future of Learning, by Maya Georgieva, March 8, 2023

Metaverse Revolution: A Conversation with Maya Georgieva at Skylight Modern Gallery, NYC.

The Metaverse Revolution - a deep-dive conversation with Maya Georgieva at the Species Between Worlds Exhibition at the Skylight Modern Gallery, 537 West 27th Street | New York, NY 10001.

News, Media, and Events

  • Maya Georgieva will be speaking at SXSWedu on Tuesday, March 7th, 3:30 PM, on the The Future of Learning in the Metaverse.

  • Maya Georgieva in EdTech Magazine What Is a Metaversity, and Should You Create One on Your Campus?

  • The Metaverse Revolution with Maya Georgieva and others at Skylight Modern Gallery, in New York City.

  • Emory Craig will be speaking at the GESS Education Global Leadership Summit, Tuesday, March 23rd at 10:30 AM (EDT) on "Learning in Virtual Worlds: How Augmented and Virtual Reality is Transforming Education in a Global Pandemic."

  • Join us at the ShapingEDU Winter Games this week! Lunch Session: Wednesday January 6, 12:30-1:00pm MST for the latest on the Hummersive Learning Project and a breakout session on Thursday, 10:45am MST on "Learning with Embodied Avatars in the Future."

  • Join us at the iLRN Conference where we'll present as co-authors the Executive Summary of the State of XR Report at 1:00pm (EST), June 23rd - immersively in VirBELA.

The EDUCAUSE-ELI Series, “VR/AR: Stepping into the New Frontier of Learning”

Article Series: Stepping into the New Frontier of Learning

Articles from our New Frontier of Learning series for the EDUCAUSE Review (and summaries of the articles):

  • From VR and AR to Our XR Future: Transforming Higher Education
  • VR and AR: The Ethical Challenges Ahead
  • VR and AR: The Art of Immersive Storytelling and Journalism
  • VR and AR: Learners as Creators and World Builders of Our Immersive Future
  • VR and AR: Designing Spaces for Immersive Learning
  • VR and AR: Transforming Learning and Scholarship in the Humanities and Social Sciences
  • VR and AR: Driving a Revolution in Medical Education & Patient Care
  • AR and VR in STEM: The New Frontiers in Science
  • A New World: VR and AR Tech Developments
  • Introducing the VR and AR Series: Stepping Into the New Frontier of Learning Series

Digital Bodies RSS Feed

How Can We Help You?

In a time of disruptive change and profound challenges in education, we can help you engage students and clients through AR, VR, and  innovative developments such as ChatGPT. Take a look at our consulting services and featured talks.

We offer talks highlighting augmented and virtual reality developments, future trends, and how to manage and leverage the power of generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT. We provide innovative workshops for education, nonprofit and corporate clients. 

About Digital Bodies Consulting

The best AR & VR news and analysis of XR in learning, storytelling, the Metaverse, AI and ChatGPT, and future ethical challenges. See our customized consulting services for how we can partner with you.

XR is transforming learning, journalism, art, storytelling, filmmaking, workforce training, and entertainment. The convergence of XR and AI will create deeply immersive virtual worlds and lifelike avatars – and raise profound ethical issues. The rapid adoption of ChatGPT has created new opportunities and profound challenges for education and other organizations. We can help you leverage today’s cutting-edge XR developments and learn how to talk to AI – which will be a critical skill of the 21st century. The future has arrived, and we will need new skills – intuition, creativity, and adaptability – and innovative strategies to make it our own.

Have a tip or a story for us? Working on an innovative project in XR? Want to master how to talk to ChatGPT to revolutionize how you work? Need help managing the use of AI in your organization? Please connect with us here or through our social media channels on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, and let us know how we can help you!

© 2023 Digital Bodies
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on Digital Bodies Consulting. We never store your information or share it with third parties. AcceptRejectPrivacy policy
Revoke cookies