Frank Witsil

Detroit Free Press

Virtual reality — video game technology that takes users into other worlds with the help of headsets, hand controls and software — is expected to dramatically change the way DTE Energy trains and recruits technicians, and potentially alter the way top executives make decisions in a crisis.

"It kind of speaks for itself, doesn't it?" Shawn Patterson, DTE's vice president and chief learning officer, said after a demonstration last week at the Royal Oak headquarters of its technology partner, Vectorform. "We can evaluate, teach, coach, and make mistakes in these scenarios, obviously, without the consequences of it happening in the real world."

The technology also could become a new revenue stream for the utility by selling or licensing the technology to other companies.

With virtual reality, utility workers can experience working in an unlimited number of situations — from repairing downed power lines after a storm to standing on top of a wind turbine hundreds of feet tall — without ever leaving their offices or homes.

Patterson said younger workers — who the Michigan company aims to hire in the next few years — are used to, expect and understand virtual reality.

"We're looking at a pretty profound transformation of our workforce in the next few years," he said. "Over the next five to seven years, roughly half of our workforce will be eligible for retirement and we're going to be bringing on a whole new generation of workers."

How the technology works

Virtual reality replicates an environment in three dimensions and tricks your mind into believing you are there by stimulating your senses — what you see, what you hear, and sometimes even what you feel or smell — with a special headset that you look into, earphones and hand controls.

To create life-like sensations, hand controls can give you tactile feedback by vibrating. A room where the scenario is taking place might be temperature controlled to make you feel hot or cold. A blowing fan can simulate wind in your face, or make certain scents waft.

It's more than just watching a movie. It's like being inside a 3-D film.

Turn your head in any direction and there is something to see just like in real life.

"This is definitely transformational technology," Vectorform cofounder and co-CEO Jason Vazzano said. "We're going to see — just as we saw mobile phones in 2008 and the rise of Internet applications in 2000 — this year is really going to be the one for the rise in VR technology."

And it's not just gaming and utility companies that are looking at virtual reality.

Two years ago, social media giant Facebook spent $2 billion to acquire Oculus VR, a tech company that developed headsets for virtual reality. Facebook aims to find ways to use the technology as a social platform.

But you don't need an expensive headset to experience virtual reality. With a simple, handheld cardboard holder that looks something like a View-Master, and headphones, anyone with a smartphone can download virtual realty apps and enter other worlds.

How real is it?

To understand how — and how well — virtual reality works, consider this:

A day after showcasing the technology to journalists, Vectorform's other founder and CEO Kurt Steckling tried out one of simulations himself.

He donned the headset, an HTC Vive, along with earphones, and picked up to controllers.

In this short scenario, he entered a suburban back yard with a white picket fence, a tree with a downed limb, a picnic table with orange cones on it and a chainsaw. His task: Pick up and properly place the cones with his hands and use the saw to cut off a limb felled by the storm.

The simulation was so real, that when Steckling was done — even though he had created it — he still tried to set the hand controls he was holding on the virtual picnic table he saw in the headset. The problem, of course, was there was no picnic table for real — and the controls would have fallen onto the floor.

"I almost went to set these down on the table," he said aloud, surprising himself. "I almost dropped them."

In another simulation, the computer puts you on top of a tall wind turbine.

It is so real, you are afraid as you get close to the edge. Your heart races. You perspire. You know, nothing will really happen to you. But no matter how hard you might try to step over the virtual edge, your mind tells you it is dangerous — and hesitates.

To use a science fiction analogy, it's almost the "Star Trek" holodeck.

Virtual reality's limits

DTE expects to begin training with the technology by the end of the year, and Vectorform aims to create simulations that are even more lifelike, what it calls higher fidelity.

DTE and Vectorform expect that virtual reality will help workers acclimate to tough conditions, such as working up high in the air; and experience jobs to decide whether they want to pursue it, before they've invested a lot of time learning how in the field.

Some of the early virtual reality headsets made users nauseated and gave them headaches.

But Vectorform developers said the HTC Vive headsets fixed that problem.

Still, as real as the scenarios might be, there are limits — and it's still unclear how much VR can improve training or whether there are unknown pitfalls.

In the downed power line simulation, the virtual cones are weightless. The chainsaw is too — and you can't possibly get cut. Could training under conditions where there are no real consequences lead workers develop bad habits — or become desensitized to fears that normally keep them safe?

Drop the saw? Nothing happens to it.

Step over the edge of the turbine? No plunge to your death.

"But, it's a lot closer to reality from web-based or app training than we've done," Vazzano said. "There are ways we can simulate more life-like scenarios. We're gong to see a much higher range of fidelity, and you're going to see motion-picture special effects to drive realism."

Technology's future

As the technology improves, Vectorform and DTE also expect to find other uses for it.

Right now, Patterson said, the headsets, which are not yet available to consumers, are expected to cost less than $1,000 each, and while virtual reality training now costs more than other methods, that will likely change as prices come down.

Virtual reality, he said, also may be a more appealing way to train employees, judging by the demand in his own office for it.

"We have folks on my team fighting to be out here on this project," Patterson said.

In the future, he added, the technology also may give executives a chance be in the field virtually, by giving them a life-like glimpse in real time of what's happening in hard-to-get to areas and/or places ravaged by disasters, allowing them to make quicker and better decisions.

"We are convinced the innovations that we make here are going to be more applicable in the energy industry more broadly," he said. "You can only imagine where we can take this."

Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.