DLH to Showcase Full Dive VR Training at I/ITSEC

DLH, in collaboration with Touro University California, will demonstrate its Full Dive Virtual Reality (FDVR) Training Platform during 2024’s Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) in Orlando, Florida, from 2-5 December at Booth 1955. This prototype platform features the ability to record biometric data in real time during training, which sets it apart from similar tools and represents exciting future capabilities, according to the company.

DLH and Touro University, along with military, academic, and industry collaborators, have created a training platform which provides a means to exercise cognitive behavioral skills to build resilience and readiness while advancing technical expertise. When trainees don FDVR’s full kit to interact with the platform, they resemble VR users in the science fiction movie, “Ready Player One,” with a VR headset, haptic gloves, and a haptic body suit as they move around on an omnidirectional treadmill. This setup creates an immersive experience that fully engages a user’s sight, sound and touch. If configured with the body suit, the body suit allows users to experience physical feedback based on the visual simulation and body motion capture with biomechanical monitoring regardless of the visual field.

Trainees will also wear a small LifeLens biometric sensor to collect real-time physiological data, while the VR headset tracks eye movements to assess cognitive load. The platform measures and records data points to provide feedback on a trainee’s performance throughout a given scenario, and their status (stress level, fatigue, engagement, etc.) while performing tasks in the VR training simulation. The data is assessed and compiled into an after-action report that describes how well that user operated under stress and potential areas they need to improve. The information collected can also loop back into the platform itself to refine training content going forward in scenario generation or future metrics recording.

“The FDVR platform encompasses a lot of different areas that DLH has in terms of capabilities,” said Zachary Parker, DLH’s president, CEO and board director. “That ranges from modeling, simulation and training to data analytics, to artificial intelligence and machine learning, to research work. It’s a compilation of multiple disciplines concentrated into one platform.”

Currently, DLH and Touro University are focusing the use of FDVR on warfighters in military medical operations and civilians in state and local emergency management as its first demographics. Through the collaboration, special effort is being devoted toward developing this platform for “role 1” through “role 4” applications in the medical continuum of care, which involve increasing levels of medical care.

“The live collection of real-time data has always been an issue for similar training tools, as well as the ability to develop content quickly based on the assessments,” Parker said. “FDVR’s capabilities represent a significant improvement in the market in how we’ve managed to resolve training challenges, particularly in real-time data gathering and providing users with information to make better decisions.”

Frank Karluk, DLH’s medical simulation account executive, will chair the “Extending Realities in Education” paper discussion at this year’s I/ITSEC. The event will take place Dec. 4 at 1:30 p.m. in Room 320D.