Digital Transformations in the Challenge of Activity and Work

As for the use of virtual reality in industry training, this mainly concerns maintenance and assembly. For example, the study by Abate et al . (2009) presents a head-mounted display application with a force feedback exoskeleton for maintenance training in the aerospace industry. In this study, users were required to perform eight routine maintenance tasks. Similarly, Stork et al . (2012) propose a semi-immersive system with a wide screen and natural interactions (to grasp objects with the hands) for assembly training in the automotive industry.

Virtual reality is also used to train operators in risk prevention. These applications are developing particularly in the construction sector. For example, Sacks et al . (2013) compared the effectiveness of safety training given by (1) a classroom trainer with a slide show with (2) training involving an immersive virtual environment used alternately by the trainer and the learners. The virtual reality system included a projection screen that allowed stereoscopic vision. The virtual environment represented a construction site. Learners were asked to share their general knowledge of the construction industry, identify risks in the situations presented and explain the behaviors to be adopted. In the same vein, the study by Zhao and Lucas (2015) presented a non-immersive virtual environment to sensitize workers to electrical risks. It allowed users to detect risks while navigating on a construction site. The virtual environment provided information to users on risks and on the behaviors to adopt.

Virtual reality is one of the technologies that is implemented today and that will continue to be implemented in the coming years in professional contexts. In this chapter, we have enlightened the reader on what virtual reality is and on the devices that virtual reality systems mobilize. We have also summarized its main applications, in general and more specifically in industry.

Most of the studies on the use of this technology, including the majority of those mentioned above, adopt technocentric approaches (or a Technology Driver approach, i.e. developing products that then seek to gain acceptance; Davies and Buisine 2017). Studies that adopt this approach describe only the technical characteristics of a virtual reality system or virtual environment, as well as their main objectives (training operators to identify risks, conducting studies on the interaction of a customer with a product, etc.). However, perhaps because the implementation of this type of technology in professional contexts is not democratized, or because they are only exceptionally integrated into employees’ activities, few studies have been carried out on their impact on work. However, their development raises questions about their suitability for users (usefulness, usability, acceptance), the changes they may bring about in the content of activities, as well as the health and well-being of employees. For these reasons, a user and activity-centered (anthropocentric) approach must be deployed to co-construct acceptable modalities for the deployment and adoption of these new immersive work environments.

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