VR training: a multi-learner management and visualization trainer application.

Formations VR : une application formateur de gestion et visualisation multi-apprenants.

In the ever-changing landscape of elearning and immersive training, a major challenge faced by trainers is tracking and interacting with learners using standalone headsets. Until recently, existing solutions left trainers somewhat helpless, unable to effectively measure learners’ progress or interact meaningfully with them while they were immersed in the virtual experience. This gap in training technology has created a need for a more integrated and interactive solution. To respond to this, Audace has developed an innovative application for trainers.

The challenge of immersive training

Immersive training, although a very powerful tool for learning and engagement, presents a challenge: the isolation of the learner in the VR headset, making it difficult for trainers to monitor progress. of each participant and the provision of real-time help. Platforms like UnityRenderStreaming and WebRTC Package have attempted to meet this need by enabling live streaming of immersive content. However, these technologies offer a partial solution, primarily limited by one-way real-time interactions and a restricted ability to manage multiple users simultaneously.

Audace’s innovation

Faced with this challenge, Audace has developed an innovative multi-learner management and visualization application for autonomous headsets. This solution not only allows trainers to follow the progress of several learners in real time in a shared virtual environment but also allows direct and meaningful interaction. This technological progress represents a major breakthrough in solving the problem of learner isolation in immersive training.

Features and benefits

The app stands out for its ability to offer a real-time overview of learner activity, as well as an option to zoom in on a specific user, all with a smooth update every two seconds. It is designed to be lightweight, adaptable and customizable, meeting the varied needs of trainers and learners in different training contexts. Additionally, this solution is compatible with a wide range of devices, which significantly broadens its potential application.

Comparison and context

Comparing with previous technologies, Audace’s application offers a more robust and flexiblebold solution for immersive training challenges. While UnityRenderStreaming and WebRTC laid the foundation for live content delivery, they failed to provide a platform for effective, real-time multi-learner interaction. Audace’s innovation fills this gap.

Audace’s initiative thus responds to a pressing need in the field of immersive training by providing trainers with the tools necessary to effectively monitor, interact and measure the progress of learners using autonomous headsets.

Digital Learning Trophies: a new Audace project rewarded!

With the serious game “La Table de Marie”,
created in partnership with Audace, SKEMA Business School wins the Digital Learning Trophy

SKEMA Business School, a leading French management school, has just won the Digital Learning Trophy in the “Higher Education” category. This victory rewards its efforts in educational innovation, particularly through an innovative training project developed with the assistance of Audace.

An original solution to meet the new educational requirements of students

Every year, SKEMA Business School organizes the “Knowledge Management Sprint”, a seminar aimed at raising awareness among L3 students of the challenges of knowledge management by putting into perspective its organic and nourishing impact within a structure.

Convinced of the need to review traditional educational models intended for younger generations, SKEMA wanted to design original training mixing multi-player serious games and coaching. Indeed, a pillar of the system is provided by coaches who help students give meaning to their actions, as well as a team of correctors who feed the scores in real time and communicate feedback to the teams.

Serious gaming is a potentially powerful tool, still largely under-exploited, in the context of initial training. A comparative analysis (benchmark) revealed that it was poorly developed in higher education. However, the younger generation of students has high expectations in terms of pedagogy. They consider too much theory without practical application to be insufficient, while too much traditional case studies are seen as repetitive. So there’s a dilemma: Students need to interact with concepts multiple times to learn them, but excessive repetition makes them feel like the content is redundant.

Convinced of the need to rethink traditional educational models, the school therefore sought to meet the new expectations of students by offering a new fun and educational medium: a collaborative serious game entitled “La Table de Marie”.

Inductive pedagogy, as implemented in this system, makes it possible to resolve these dilemmas. It offers students the opportunity to discover in a concrete way the organizational and human issues encountered in the professional world in a fun way, while establishing links with the concepts covered during their undergraduate university program. This approach aims to prepare students for future responsibilities within international companies, by requiring them to work in teams, make collective decisions and make choices within a limited time frame.

“We firmly believe that the earlier students are exposed to complex management situations, the more they will develop responsible management skills, which is essential for both organizations and society as a whole. »

Béatrice TOUSTOU, Teacher-researcher

Bringing together 800 players, divided into 160 teams and across 3 sites in France: the challenge of this highly collaborative serious game

Each year, no less than 800 L3 students, divided into 160 teams on 3 campuses, participate in the Knowledge Management seminar at SKEMA Business School.

To do this, the device developed by Audace had to meet several challenges: managing a large number of players simultaneously, allowing remote team collaboration and the use of a real-time application with a scalable server.

The multiplayer serious game “La Table de Marie” thus immerses students in a scenario similar to that of “Nightmare in the Kitchen”, challenging them to resolve organizational and human issues in a high-end restaurant. They take on the role of consultants and must collaborate as a team to find solutions, while receiving personalized support from coaches and correctors.

This solution is based on the Unity 3D game engine and offers a variety of interactive activities to reinforce learning: closed activities, such as processes and quizzes, as well as open activities focused on creativity and reflection. The application’s features allow students to work interactively and validate their answers as a team.

More than 86% satisfaction: the positive impact of training!

Whether it is collaboration, learning results or the level of involvement and motivation of students, the positive impact of this educational innovation has been clearly noted by the teams of coaches and correctors.

Satisfaction was expressed through direct satisfaction questionnaires and the satisfaction survey carried out by the teaching team. We also organized post-seminar debriefing sessions with class delegates and speakers (see verbatims). The satisfaction percentage is at 86.4%, based on a very good response rate (37.85%).

The specific serious game questionnaire administered by a researcher indicates the following results: interesting activities (88%), absorption by the activities offered (88%), mentally demanding exercises (73%), fun (86%), satisfactory teamwork (88%). 

“Best seminar of the year”

“The course we worked the hardest on”

“This inductive pedagogy side is super powerful!”

Building on its success, the project is intended to be disseminated beyond the establishment, thus opening the way to new opportunities in the field of digital learning.

By winning the Digital Learning Trophy, SKEMA Business School demonstrates its commitment to educational innovation and the excellence of its teaching. From our point of view, this success perfectly illustrates the ability of educational institutions to adapt to the needs of students and push the boundaries of traditional learning using digital technologies.

Discover the project in a video.

What we have in store for you at Elearning Expo 2024

From March 19 to 22, 2024, the SIRH/E-learning Expo will be held at Paris Expo, Porte de Versailles. Like every year, Audace will not miss this unmissable event in the field of digital training and awaits many of you on stand A58.

Come discover our e-learning, serious games or immersive learning training devices the most innovative and efficient in many sectors (education and training, industry, logistics, construction, etc.) and responding to numerous fields of application: welcoming new employees, GDPR, workplace safety and cybersecurity, training in technical procedures , etc.

We will also invite you to test our tailor-made or off-the-shelf virtual reality simulators (VR machine driving training simulator, industrial process simulations, etc.).

Attend our selection of mini-conferences

Jérôme POULAIN, Associate Director of Audace, specialist in pedagogy for over 25 years, and Yann LEURENT, VR Product Manager, will have the pleasure of hosting a series of free mini-conferences (duration: 10 min.) on topics digital training. Each intervention will be followed by a time for discussion. See you on stand A58!

Program for March 20, 2024
11:00 a.m.: Elearning, Serious Game, XR… How to choose the right device?

How determine the best approach to meet your educational objectives? . Discover the advantages and disadvantages of each learning modality And maximize your learners’ engagement and memorization. Targeted for training and HR experts. Get the keys to wise learning choices.

11:30 a.m.: Training in virtual reality: what does it cost? what profitability?

In This mini-conference, Yann Leurent challenges preconceived ideas and demonstrates how virtual reality can significantly reduce training costs while improving the quality of learning and the operational excellence of the company. With concrete cases to illustrate the demonstration.

3:00 p.m.: How to gamify or gamify your digital training course?

Find out how to capture the attention of your learners, maintain motivation throughout the training and work on memorizing knowledge. What are the levers of pedagogy and how to adapt it to your learner profiles? How to integrate edutainment into a face-to-face or distance learning course? Can we gamify everything? Jérôme Poulain will answer all your questions.

3:30 p.m.: Risk hunting, technical training… Immersive learning for the safety and productivity of your employees.

Headsets becoming more and more accessible, technology becoming more and more sophisticated… With immersive learning, learning by doing and the logic of trial/error remains the best way to acquire skills. Immersive Learning is particularly efficient in responding to numerous challenges:integrate new operators without taking any production risks; thetrain quickly in critical business actions; ddelegate maintenance to operators as part of TPM, improve the safety of your operators and reduce accidents at work…

Program for March 21, 2024
11:00 a.m.: Integrating an XR device into an educational course: the right questions to ask yourself

Are you wondering about integrating virtual reality into your educational journey? Discover during this mini-conference the essential questions to consider, from the relevance of content to technological accessibility to guarantee the success of the immersive experience.

11:30 a.m.: Succeed in your VR device deployment strategy

Yann Leurent, VR Product Manager at Audace, will give you his advice for a successful deployment of virtual reality in your training course. Learn how to build an effective strategy, from needs identification to practical implementation, and maximize the impact of your VR initiatives on your training and learner engagement.

2:00 p.m.: The power of “beauty” in digital learning

In the world of digital learning, editorial quality and aesthetics are not details, but on the contrary essential elements that transform the training experience. Join us to discover how these key components can significantly improve engagement, understanding and retention of information in our saturated digital environments.

3:45 p.m.: Be innovative with SCORM, bold with Tin Can

An essential pillar of the standardization of elearning content, SCORM strategies can considerably optimize the management and monitoring of training. To go further, Tin Can offers unparalleled flexibility in data collection, paving the way for personalized and immersive learning experiences. Join Jérôme Poulain for an exploration of these essential tools for more effective training.

TOTAL – E-LEARNING CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSORSTOTAL

As part of the ongoing training for its employees, TotalEnergies has entrusted Audace Digital Learning with the development of e-learning training modules dedicated to the use of common tools in the process industry. Following ‘Centrifugal Pumps’ and ‘Reciprocating Compressors,’ this new e-learning program aims to train the Group’s technicians in the use of centrifugal compressors to guide them towards operational excellence.

Consisting of 3 e-learning modules, the program also includes an immersive 3D capsule dedicated to the practical application of the training. The operator must ensure that the machine is functioning correctly while familiarizing themselves with the equipment.

A pre-course and post-course assessment in the form of multiple-choice questions (QCM) allows for measuring the evolution of knowledge and the effectiveness of the training.

Target

Operators on the production site.

Objective of the digital training

Enable TOTAL technicians to understand the operation of centrifugal compressors, be aware of the risks associated with operating these machines, and know how to intervene in case of a breakdown. Finally, be able to perform routine operations.

Accessibility of the e-learning module

PC or tablet

Sony and Pimax: New Developments for Headsets

Sony has introduced a new XR headset that stands out for its focus on spatial content creation. This headset, designed for professional applications, targets engineers, developers, and product designers involved in exploring and modeling 3D environments, as well as for testing and prototyping product designs.

Sony, the headset oriented towards spatial content creation

The headset is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 chipset and features two 4K OLED micro-displays, providing a high-quality visual experience. It also includes a transparency video feature and has a total of six cameras and sensors for spatial recognition and enhanced mixed reality experiences. The device is designed to support creators in crafting sophisticated 3D content, with collaborations planned by Sony with various 3D production software developers in both entertainment and industrial design domains.

Unique features of the Sony headset: its physical control options.

It includes a wearable ring accessory for intuitive object manipulation in the virtual space, and a hybrid stylus and controller for precise interaction and pointing. Another notable feature is the headset’s flip-up visor, allowing for an easy transition between virtual and physical environments without the need to completely remove the headset. This folding mechanism is particularly useful for professionals who may need to switch frequently between virtual and real tasks.

Overall, Sony’s XR headset represents a significant step towards integrating virtual and physical workflows in professional environments, providing an immersive and intuitive tool for spatial content creation.

Pimax Crystal, the virtual reality (VR) headset that redefines the standards of the visual experience.

Welcome to the technological world of the Pimax Crystal, a virtual reality (VR) headset that redefines the standards of the visual experience. This detailed analysis highlights the essential technical aspects that make the Pimax Crystal a future pioneer in the field of VR.

The exceptional clarity of the Pimax Crystal

The Pimax Crystal stands out with its revolutionary Pixels-Per-Degree (PPD) measurement, achieving an unparalleled visual clarity of 35 PPD. The visual experience is then significantly enhanced (on average below 20 for other headsets). Its QLED+Mini LED panels, with a resolution of 5760 horizontal pixels and 2880 vertical pixels, create an unparalleled visual experience.

QLED+Mini LED Panels

Featuring QLED+Mini LED panels, the Pimax Crystal provides a wider color gamut, deeper blacks, and local dimming mini-LED backlighting. This unique design ensures enhanced contrasts and vibrant colors, creating an exceptional visual immersion with vivid colors and deep blacks, providing a rich and vibrant visual palette.

Ergonomic Design, Balance, and Comfort

Beyond its visual performance, the Pimax Crystal offers a balanced weight distribution for optimal comfort. With a weight of 960g, this headset remains among the lightest on the market, ensuring a secure and pleasant fit. Its angular design redefines comfort standards for VR headset users. The interchangeable glass lenses ensure consistent visual clarity and sharp vision, providing an uncompromised visual experience.

High-Precision Eye Tracking

Featuring high-quality eye tracking operating at 120 Hz, the Pimax Crystal offers immersive visual control. The eye tracking system enables optimal visual rendering, with a Foveated Rendering system that dynamically adjusts image quality in the peripheral vision (outside the user’s gaze) for exceptional performance.

Two Powerful Modes: PCVR and Standalone XR2

Explore the two exceptional modes of the Pimax Crystal. In PCVR mode, immerse yourself in the virtual reality world with the power of a robust computer. Discover how the standalone XR2 mode provides a lightweight and mobile experience, with support for Wi-Fi 6E and planned wireless streaming features via WiGig (WiGig is an ultra-fast wireless technology for short-distance connections, ideal for high-definition streaming and wireless devices).

External Cameras for Station-Free Experience

With 4 external depth-sensing cameras, the Pimax Crystal eliminates the need for base stations. These cameras ensure precise tracking without requiring additional accessories, simplifying setup and enhancing user convenience. The external cameras also enable advanced features such as hand tracking and augmented reality, expanding the possibilities for interaction in the virtual world.

Despite some minor drawbacks, the Pimax Crystal provides an exceptional visual experience. This technical exploration reveals the convergence of clarity, technology, and comfort, positioning the Pimax Crystal (priced at 1999€) as a headset to watch in the world of virtual reality!

New augmented reality glasses, the Air 2 Ultra from Xreal, at CES 2024!

The Chinese startup Xreal (formerly Nreal) unveiled its augmented reality glasses, the Xreal Air 2 Ultra, at CES 2024. These revolutionary glasses, set to be available in March, stand out with two front-facing sensors enabling 6DOF tracking (the ability to detect movements in three dimensions, adding a dimension to the classic freedom of movement – up/down, left/right, forward/backward), providing an unparalleled immersive experience. Compatible with the Galaxy S22 and S23 smartphones, the Xreal Air 2 Ultra is equipped with Sony micro-OLED displays, offering a resolution of 1080p per eye with a refresh rate of 120 Hz in 2D and 90 Hz in 3D.

Featuring a sleek design and lightweight build

The glasses, with an elegant sunglasses-style design, weigh only 80 grams thanks to their titanium frames. Equipped with small directional speakers and two microphones, they provide an immersive sound experience. The glasses’ lenses can be darkened for increased immersion, with three levels of adjustment available.

Features.

The Xreal Air 2 Ultra requires a connection to a smartphone or computer via a USB-C cable. The Nebula software overlay allows the display of Android or Windows applications in the form of virtual windows within the environment. The glasses can map the environment in 3D, with a semantic analysis of surfaces. Hand gestures are tracked for intuitive interaction.

Compatibility and Price

Compatible with Samsung Galaxy S22 and S23, as well as computers running Windows or MacOS, the Xreal Air 2 Ultra is available for pre-order at 799 euros. Primarily aimed at developers, they promise to create the next generation of mixed reality experiences. The software development kit (NRSDK 2.2) will be available in March. This will allow our developers at Audace Digital Learning to explore advanced uses for these glasses in the development of innovative training programs in the future!

Comparison and Battery Life, the Drawback of These Glasses

While Xreal positions the Air 2 Ultra as competitors to the Apple Vision Pro, they stand out for a narrower field of view and less advanced technology. Their autonomy, dependent on the host device’s battery, provides approximately three hours of movie viewing on a smartphone. However, it’s important to keep in mind the price of these two devices, which adds to this difference: 799€ against approximately 3200€!

Growth of the Augmented Reality Market

The augmented reality glasses, booming in 2023, are evolving with the Xreal Air 2 Ultra. Despite some limitations, these glasses anticipate a new era of visual comfort and spatial features, driving the expansion of the augmented reality market.

The announcement of the Xreal Air 2 Ultra represents a significant advancement in the field of augmented reality, providing developers and users with an unprecedented immersive experience. Although presenting some differences compared to the Apple Vision Pro, these glasses pave the way for a new era of visual innovations. With promising features and an elegant design, they demonstrate the ongoing growth potential of the augmented reality market. Note: BMW has highlighted the integration of augmented reality into cars with the Xreal Air 2 glasses. AR indications guide the driver, overlaying navigation instructions in their field of vision, providing hazard warnings, offering a convincing demonstration of the future of AR-assisted driving.

NVIDIA ACE (Avatar Cloud Engine): A significant upcoming addition to e-learning?

Revolutionize Your Experiences with NVIDIA ACE: Intelligent Avatars for a Playful and Instructive Future.

NVIDIA Avatar Cloud Engine (ACE), a technological breakthrough enabling developers to create innovative digital avatars through generative AI. ACE offers easy customization, secure outcomes, and deployment flexibility, paving the way for realistic and engaging avatars. This could be a significant advantage for your future training programs. This project revolutionizes players’ immersion. Non-player characters (NPCs) become interactive, reacting realistically to players’ words, offering natural dialogues with the ability to speak to them through a microphone. The interactions are multilingual with a one-second latency.

Key Features of ACE:

Easy to Build – Highly Customizable: Customize ACE models without deep expertise, seamlessly integrate them into your applications for realistic avatars.

Secure and Consistent Results: ACE offers secure AI models (Audio2Face, Live Portrait, Voice Font, Riva, and NeMo) ensuring accurate and appropriate avatars in various contexts, addressing future demands, such as in training.

Flexible Deployment Options: Deploy avatars via the cloud, PC, public or private, in real-time or offline, offering total adaptability to developers.

Key Components of ACE :

AI Animation: Uses Audio2Face for realistic 3D animations, also facilitating the animation of 2D portraits with Live Portrait.

AI Speech and Translation: Provides accurate transcription (ASR), text-to-speech synthesis (TTS), and up to 31 bidirectional translations with NeMo. (More info : https://www.nvidia.com/fr-fr/ai-data-science/generative-ai/nemo-framework/)

Generative AI: NVIDIA NeMo provides language models for advanced responses, ensuring accuracy and security for avatars.

Exploration of Possibilities: :

NVIDIA ACE offers an innovative solution to developers, enabling them to create customized avatars or adopt processes specific to their application domain, such as customer interaction and intelligent services. In the gaming industry, development with NVIDIA Kairos introduces intelligent non-player characters (NPCs), ensuring natural interactions through ACE via NeMo, Riva, and Audio2Face. Finally, real-time communication is optimized by NVIDIA Maxine, which integrates real-time translation and speech synthesis, with the addition of Riva for immersive global-scale communication.

In summary, NVIDIA ACE propels avatars to new horizons, offering seamless integration into digital experiences. From gaming to real-time communications, ACE paves the way for a future where avatars become a significant addition to interactive experiences, particularly in future training scenarios. Imagine being able to interact in real-time with an avatar that provides you with more information about your training; that could be a significant advantage!

The GAI, star of CES 2024

Already last year, generative artificial intelligence (GAI) was the star of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, just two months after the launch of ChatGPT by OpenAI. This year, the trend is confirmed at this new edition of the trade show: AI will be increasingly used in sectors such as health, finance, logistics, and education, thereby transforming the way these industries operate.

The Industry Giants highlight the GAI:

Nvidia, renowned for its contributions to large language models (LLMs), has unveiled a hybrid solution combining the power of its graphics processing units (GPUs) with cloud computing. This approach meets the growing demand for GAI and extends to sectors such as 3D modeling and video game. Intel, its direct competitor, announces a new generation of processors focused on GAI and expresses its commitment to integrating GAI into future automotive fleets.

At the event, Volkswagen announced the integration of ChatGPT into its vehicles. LG, on the other hand, plans to infuse its household appliances with GAI to enable them to provide verbal guidance.

Industrial Metaverse: How Siemens Aims to Shape the Future

Among the major industry players present, Siemens unveiled significant advancements aimed at creating an industrial metaverse, merging the physical and digital worlds for innovative collaboration through artificial intelligence (AI). Siemens CEO, Roland Busch, emphasized the opportunities presented by this metaverse, allowing individuals to collaborate in real-time to address challenges in the physical world.

One of the key partnerships announced is with Sony, focusing on the development of immersive engineering. Siemens and Sony are collaborating on a solution called ‘NX Immersive Designer,’ scheduled for release in 2024. This innovative solution combines Siemens’ NX software with Sony’s new spatial content creation system, including an extended reality (XR) headset. This XR technology provides a virtual and augmented experience with high-quality 4K OLED micro-displays and controllers for intuitive interaction with 3D objects. The demonstration shows how engineers at Red Bull Racing can overcome traditional constraints by immersing themselves in the industrial metaverse.

At the same time, Siemens is strengthening its collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to facilitate the creation and deployment of generative AI applications. By integrating Amazon Bedrock into Mendix (Siemens Xcelerator’s low-code platform), customers can easily select and integrate generative AI models without requiring specialized programming skills. This collaboration streamlines the development of intelligent applications, enhancing productivity by simplifying tasks such as machine documentation search and suggesting equipment adjustments. Generative AI provides a user-friendly interface for interacting with information, thereby accelerating the development process while ensuring security and confidentiality in data handling.

In summary, Siemens is actively committed to shaping the future through key partnerships and technological advancements, aiming to realize the concept of the industrial metaverse through immersive engineering and generative AI solutions. The CES 2024 highlighted the growing appetite for GAI, suggesting that this technology is on track to become the standard for all economic players. This wave of innovation recalls the advent of the web in the late 1990s, marking a major turning point in the global technological landscape. Stay tuned for these exciting developments, as the future of learning has never been more promising.

See you at the Learning Technologies 2024 show

The flagship event in the field of learning and educational technologies is coming!

Audace will meet you at the Learning Technologies 2024 show on January 24 and 25 at Paris Expo – Porte de Versailles.

Come share your questions with us, discuss your specific needs and share live demonstrations on stand R21!
Our teams will be happy to explain to you how our innovative training solutions can boost your company’s performance and help your teams excel!

HRS Inside: innovative onboarding for a successful welcome

Well-managed onboarding has a decisive impact on the success of employees, and therefore of the company. It allows for better job placement, an increase in productivity, greater job satisfaction and, in fact, a reduction in turnover. This is how the Robert Schuman Hospitals Group (HRS), comprising 4 establishments in Luxembourg (2,300 employees and 310 doctors), is launching an innovative onboarding course for its new employees. Developed in collaboration with Audace, this program is part of the HRS Group’s CSR framework, aiming to facilitate the integration of new team members.

The training course consists of 15 modules, all available in French and German. It covers a variety of topics allowing employees to feel welcome, with a welcome video from the group director and the human resources director; to discover the values, the history of the group and its scope of action; to familiarize themselves with the center they will join; to have all the necessary logistical information but also to understand the context of the hospital environment, its challenges and to know the best practices to apply on a daily basis.

TV set as a setting, star presenter, sound jingle, specialists interviewed, special correspondent on site, discovery reports, news flashes, etc.  the employee is immersed in a TV show (very inspired) and guided by the presenter Guillaume and his guests.

The storyline choice of the hand-held camera report allows you to immerse yourself in the heart of the HRS group, to get to know its different divisions in depth. Each video introduces interactive educational content.

The icing on   the cake is that the learner sometimes takes the place of the guest expert on the set in order to give his opinion via a series of various questions asked throughout the module. After each decision is made, feedback is systematically offered according to the nature of the response for better anchoring in memory.