Using XR to Ensure a Safe Work Environment, with Bit Space Development’s Daniel Blair XR for Business

Access to the Internet can be spotty
in Northern Canada. But heavy industry happens up there all the same,
and Bit Space Development’s Daniel Blair wants to bring those
workers the same access to XR-driven training and remote expert
assistance as anywhere else enjoys. He chats with Alan about how he
hopes to bring that about, in the first XR for Business of 2020.







Alan: Hey, everyone, it’s Alan
Smithson here with the XR for Business Podcast. Today, we’re speaking
with Daniel Blair, founder and CEO of a Canadian VR company called
Bit Space Development. We’ll be discussing how virtual reality is
revolutionizing industrial training and why it’s vitally important to
define your key performance indicators to release you and your
customers from the Pilot POC Purgatory. All that and more on the XR
for Business Podcast.



With that, I want to welcome my good
friend Dan to the show. Welcome to the show, Dan.



Daniel: Hey, thanks for having
me.



Alan: It’s my absolute pleasure.
Let’s get into what you guys are doin; making serious purposes with
VR and AR. What does that mean?



Daniel: Basically, what that
means is we utilize immersive technologies to create games. But those
games are used for training, education, and really serious purposes.
We aren’t generally building applications that are going to be sold
on Steam or sold on the Oculus store. But what we’re building are
tools that integrate with clients infrastructure to help augment
their workflow or create a safer workplace.



Alan: I know you guys have done
a ton of things. One of them was a hand tool training simulator.
Maybe walk us through what are these things, and how are people using
them?



Daniel: For sure. Some of our
most recent deployments include exactly what you’re talking about,
the power tools simulator, which we created with a provincial
organization here. That tool utilizes the room-scale six degrees of
freedom tracking of any of the open VR-capable headsets, to put new
entrants and kids on job sites and teach them about safe operation of
power tools. And that can range from anything from a drill or a
hammer drill or a circular saw. But we put some really interesting
tools in there, like concrete saws — which would be extremely
dangerous for a new entrant to use in real life.



Alan: I actually know all about
that, cement saws. When I was a kid, my dad was grinding some bricks
with a grinding wheel and the wheel shattered and cut both his legs
wide open. And I remember as a kid, taking him to the hospital and
them having to sew up right down to the bone. I mean, this was a real
problem. I know this firsthand. This is a very, very unsafe tool if
used incorrectly.



Daniel: Yeah. And the worst part
of building these applications are the shock value photos that my
clients will send me. I’ll wake up in the morning and they’ll say,
“hey, this is a good example of why to learn about the safe
operation of these tools.” And they’ll send me a photo of
something similar to what happened to your dad, which is super
unfortunate. And additionally to that, we’ve done a lot of work in
the welding space, and on the more promotional side, our most recent
deployment is called Level Up VR, which we developed with the USAF
Workers of Tomorrow, an organization that promotes safe work sites
and safe work practices for both employers and employees for youth.
And that tool actually won an Impact Marketing Award for the use of
the virtual reality tool in the campaign that was created to raise
awareness. So we see both the marketing side and the education side.



Alan: That’s amazing. Safe
working is something that we need to market to. Tr