Topic: An overview of what you propose to do in your project
Increase the training of law enforcement through the usage of VR throughout every police department and training centre. For “real life” training, many training efforts try to make scenarios as close to the real thing as possible, but due to limitations, sometimes it doesn’t provide a close relation to the scenario being remade and thus, training and experience are being hindered. Our project could potentially solve this issue through the construction of high-tech and complex VR systems being implemented within all training and current police departments for specialist training and refinement of current SWAT members. The need for protection and safety within all communities is undoubtedly important with no shortcuts to that. Though training “exists” as standard, it could be done better, thus the need for VR systems within law enforcement. It’s been implemented through other various industries already such as military and healthcare, all revolving around protecting/saving lives, so it makes sense to have these systems in law enforcement as well.
We envision this project to be scaled to not only Australia, but globally. especially to 2nd/3rd world countries where police departments' power are being competed against by major criminal organisations. An example can be seen in Mexico where special police are consistently at war with the cartels. Our VR project could sharpen their skills through effective teamwork practice within heavily similar simulated scenarios. To extend the usage of the VR systems, this could also be used for regular police officers awsell to refine their own training. This training could be proven useful for police conduct within communities For example, the recent Minneapolis police controversy resulting in the death of George Floyd was due to terrible execution of training by police officers.
Motivation
Why is this project important or interesting?
The motivation behind this project is our deep interest in simulation and video games, ranging from FPS shooters such as Call of Duty to Counter Strike. especially the heavy consideration between placing “video game” like simulation into real situations (i.e law enforcement). This sparks interest as we’d imagine how close we can get to reality in a dangerous job without having to feel the “bad” effects of real life simulation.
How does it fit in with current IT trends?
The rise of virtual reality within society has grown significantly within this decade, with the market size of just consumer reality projected to increase from 6.2 Billion to 16 Billion US dollars from 2019 to 2022. Though the consumer mass of VR technology comes in the form of mainstream VR gaming, VR applications have been seen used in other essential industries such as healthcare and military but not widely used. With this project, we’d hope to break the fourth wall and introduce VR technology that is extremely sufficient in creating training scenarios for law enforcement specialist to be able to be used widely
What would it show to a future employer if you were able to work on this project?
Working On the project will display to a future employer that we are able to take a pre-existing idea, and take it to a new level, through innovating and creating a whole new system. In a literal sense, it will display a whole system created for improvement of special police force’s skills in various aspects. This project would also show our team’s effective and transparent communication in executing and ideas in a timely manne
Landscape
What similar systems or products are available?
So far, VR technology has scoped to gaming and social media applications. Known consumer grade Technologies are HTC Vive and Oculus Rift providing people with a unique gaming experience and chance to explore certain types of simulated terrain through the usage of purely a headset (and other hardware such as PCs)
What are the competitors?
The main competitors within the VR industry are currently Facebook (Oculus Rift), Value (HTC Vive). Though as mentioned before, these companies have/are mainly focused on recreational activities and are often connected to a regular PC in the user's home for it to function. Another potential competitor is a company called Apex, where they are also developing a range of VR systems for the military and are in development for law enforcement as well
What points of difference are there between your project and what is presently available?
The points of difference between current major competitors and our supposed project is a focus to more functionality than recreational purposes. Our project will have the inclusion of other products to increase functionality for an even more realistic scenario for police personnel. Things such as haptic suits which would create touch sensations, motion capture and detect biometrics. Another aspect would be the vr integrated weaponry that is used by law enforcement. These life-like weighted weapons would create a sensation to the user that it is actually being fired.