When you board a plane, the last thing you want to think about is what you would have to do to survive an emergency landing. But knowing exactly how to safely evacuate an aircraft could one day save your life. That is why a group of researchers created a simulator in Oculus Rift to survive an airplane accident in the middle of the sea.
In the near future, people will learn about travel safety through different virtual reality experiences in their homes. This time, researchers from the University of Udine HCI Lab (Italy) show us a glimpse of that future with Emergency Water Landing VR, the first virtual reality experience of an airplane landing and evacuation from the passenger's perspective. As you might have imagined, the goal is to get out of the aircraft unharmed by following the safety procedures, but always being careful of the mistakes one can make in such a situation.
A study from IEEE Transactions has shown that virtual experience produces better knowledge retention than traditional aviation safety education materials. Based on this, the researchers created a rather terrifying emergency landing simulation that appears to be much more effective than a safety pamphlet. These results suggest a new approach to educating people about safety: through virtual risk experiences, VR users will be able to safely experiment with any kind of danger, becoming prepared for such encounters in the real world.
In this case, the goal of Emergency Water Landing VR is to teach passengers to follow the proper procedures for evacuating an emergency landing. If you own an Oculus Rift headset and want to know if you can survive an airplane accident in the middle of the sea, don't hesitate to try this application, as Emergency Water Landing VR is available for download on the Oculus site.
Emergency Water Landing VR
