ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Rescue training has been carried out for centuries but new advanced technology involving Virtual Reality (VR) unveils new opportunities. They are still very limited but do give the possibility of rescue training in e.g. buildings or planes on fire without anybody getting hurt. Properly training programmes in surroundings and under conditions similar to the real “thing” are important parts of a virtual training facility. Such a facility can provide the right environment for an emergency rescue scenario that can be lived through over and over again without having the costs for training rising up through the sky. Different aspects of ER can be involved in the virtual training environment and be practiced one by one or all together. Among them are e.g. communication and cooperation between the different rescue groups. These aspects are very important in order to minimize the number of mistakes and delays during an operation. Even if working ER systems using VR are very sparse this article focuses on systems solely based on immersive VR technologies. For that, some sort of display system must be present and provide an experience of “being there” which cannot be obtained through an ordinary computer monitor. This also means that systems based on picture based platforms like QTVR (QuickTime Virtual Reality), game-like platforms or decision support systems will not be discussed in this article. The article begins with an introduction to VR and gives a few examples of use and outlines the potential of VR within ER since the real killer application yet has to appear. The article rounds up with a more general view on VR for those of you who are interested in the technology and might be interested to invest in the equipment used.
1 VIRTUAL REALITY FROM THE START
