外刊阅读
说到虚拟现实（VR），很多人可能马上会想到它可以运用到游戏，电影等休闲娱乐场景。但实际上，虚拟现实技术能给职场培训带来很大的帮助，比如让外科医生在模拟手术中打磨自己的技术。
对于害怕公众演讲的人来说，这项技术可以让他们通过多次模拟演讲降低心里的恐惧感。今天一起来通过一篇金融时报的文章来了解一下这项技术在职场领域的运用吧~
这是英语书架的外刊泛读专栏，不定期分享一些有意思的文章，供大家阅读涨姿势~
Can virtual reality inject more life into workplace training?
I look over the shoulder of the surgeon operating on the patient. He is dressed in scrubs, I am in my everyday workwear. A couple of days later, I sack Barry, a mature office worker I have never met before. It goes smoothly. He sighs. The second time I fire him, he cries. Then I take off my virtual reality headset and go to lunch.
我看着外科医生给病人做手术。他穿着医院的手术服，我穿着自己的日常工作服。几天后，我解雇了自己从未见过面的年长员工巴里(Barry)。解雇很顺利，他叹了 口气。我第二次解雇他时，他哭了。然后，我摘下虚拟现实(VR)头戴式显示器， 去吃午餐。
Purveyors of VR, in which the user immerses themselves in a 3D digital world, hope that businesses will buy the technology to train their staff. Expectations that consumers would snap up headsets after Facebook bought pioneer Oculus VR for $2bn in 2014, have not come to pass — despite an increasingly competitive marketplace and the falling costs of headsets.
VR 技术可以让使用者沉浸在一个 3D 数字世界中。供应商希望企业购买该技术 来培训员工。2014 年 Facebook 斥资 20 亿美元收购先驱 Oculus VR 后，有关消费 者将会抢购头戴式显示器的预期并未成真，尽管市场竞争日益激烈且头戴式显示 器成本不断下降。
Software developers hope that training may prove to be a compelling proposition. Already, retail assistants are donning VR headsets to learn to manage the shop floor while surgeons sharpen their skills in a risk-free environment. VR is also being used to develop “soft skills” such as interviewing, giving feedback and presentations.
软件开发人员希望，培训有望被证明是一个令人信服的应用领域。零售助理已经 在使用 VR 头戴式显示器来学习如何管理店内环境，而外科医生则在无风险环境 中提高技能。虚拟现实还被用于发展“软技能”，例如面试、提供反馈和演示。
It is ironic that VR technology may help us have a more human touch just as some jobs look set to be automated.
具有讽刺意味的是，就在某些工作看起来将被自动化取代之际，VR 技术可能帮 助我们更为人性化。
These training applications are the latest iteration of digital simulators that reconstruct potentially life-or-death scenarios for the military and pilots. Sam Barker, senior analyst at Juniper Research, sees investment in training as driven by a desire to mitigate “the loss of knowledge from retiring employees and the cost and time savings from having digital training modules that can be rolled out at scale”
这些培训应用是为军方和飞行员重建可能生死攸关的场景的数字模拟器的最新 版本。Juniper Research 的高级分析师山姆•巴克(Sam Barker)认为，投资于 VR 培 训是出于缓解“退休员工知识流失以及拥有可规模化部署的数字培训模块能够节 省成本和时间”的考虑。
This year, the UK’s Network Rail used VR technology to teach employees who assess site safety. It was used to try out different weather environments, situations where there is limited sight of approaching trains and sudden noise.
今年，英国铁路网公司(Network Rail)使用 VR 技术来培训员工评估施工现场的安 全性。它被用于测试不同的天气环境，以及突然听到噪音和能见度有限、难以看 清驶近的火车的情况。
Walmart, the retailer, has distributed Oculus Rift headsets to its training academies. Shop floor staff use it to learn how to navigate the busy throngs of a Black Friday sale, spotting hazardous situations, dealing with crowds and replenishing stock. It is also being trialled in active shooter training scenarios.
零售商沃尔玛(Walmart)向其培训学院分发了 Oculus Rift 头戴式显示器。商店员 工使用它来学习如何对付“黑色星期五”销售时的繁忙人群、发现危险情况、应对 人群和补充库存。它还被试用于 active shooter（正在行凶的枪手）训练场景。
Walmart has delivered 650,000 modules of training through VR and expects that number to rise to 2m by the end of January. The retailer is enthusiastic about the technology’s potential. Staff are tested on their comprehension after undergoing training and Walmart says the use of VR has increased understanding by 5 to 15 per cent. Oculus Go headsets are also used for in-store training. The appeal, they say, is that the training can be on-demand and repeated often to reinforce the new information.
沃尔玛迄今交付了 65 万个 VR 培训模块，预计该数字到明年 1 月底将增加到 200 万。这家零售商非常看好这项技术的潜力。该公司对接受培训后的员工进行测试， 以评估他们的理解。沃尔玛表示，使用 VR 可以将理解提高 5%至 15%。Oculus Go 头戴式显示器也被用于店内培训。据称，吸引人之处在于可以随时按需培训，并 且可以经常重复培训以强化新信息。
Research into the effect of VR on public speaking has found that users’ confidence levels increase but does not yet show that they become better public speakers. Marianne Schmid Mast, a professor of organisational behaviour at the University of Lausanne, says research shows it is equivalent to traditional role-play training. Typically it is “a self-report of participants [about] how anxious they feel with respect to public speaking and after the training they report lower levels of stress and/or anxiety”. The advantage, she says, is that it is easier to organise an audience with virtual avatars than with real people. They can also practise as often as they like.
对 VR 公开演讲训练效果的研究发现，用户信心有所提高，但迄今尚未表明他们 更擅长公开演讲了。洛桑大学(University of Lausanne)组织行为学教授玛丽安•施 密德•马斯特(Marianne Schmid Mast)表示，研究表明，这种训练等同于传统的角 色扮演培训。通常来说，“参与者自我报告对公开演讲感到焦虑，而在培训后他 们报告较低的压力及/或焦虑水平”。她说，VR 的优势在于，与真人相比，更容 易组织虚拟化身观众。学员想练多少次就可以练多少次。
VR has a clearer advantage when it helps put the user into someone else’s shoes — a doctor, for example, might understand their patient better, or a manager could more easily see a team member’s perspective.
VR 的更明显优势在于帮助使用者站在其他人的立场观察事物——例如，医生可 能会更好地了解患者，或者经理可能更容易看到某个团队成员的视角。
