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Review
. 2019 Oct 16:6:101.
doi: 10.3389/frobt.2019.00101. eCollection 2019.

A SWOT Analysis of the Field of Virtual Reality for Firefighter Training

Hendrik Engelbrecht  1 , Robert W Lindeman  1 , Simon Hoermann  1   2
Affiliations
Review

A SWOT Analysis of the Field of Virtual Reality for Firefighter Training

Hendrik Engelbrecht et al. Front Robot AI. .

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) research has gone through rapid advances and the technology has established itself as a valuable training tool in many domains. While research in the field of emergency response, and more specifically in the field of firefighting, is still catching up, the future potential of VR technology for training is promising. This paper uses the SWOT framework to analyse the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats immersive VR technology faces in the field of firefighter training. While using VR for training is cost-effective, safe to use and provides the ability to prepare trainees with a large variety of high fidelity training environments, the lack in specialization of the applications for the fire-service sector and issues with technology acceptance and limitations need to be addressed. Looking to current research, there are promising findings that might be directly transferable, creating affective, and multi-sensory experiences for more effective mental and physical training of firefighters in the future. More research is needed to establish methods of skills transfer from VR to real life scenarios and to evaluate the potential risk of frequent training in engaging and physiologically stimulating virtual environments.

Keywords: SWOT; firefighting; human factors; training; virtual reality.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Breathing apparatus training in live fire environment for New Zealand firefighters.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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