Abstract
Highly interactive virtual environment (HIVE) is a term that refers to interactive educational simulations, serious games and virtual worlds. Studies indicate that learning with the aid of interactive environments produces better retention and depth of knowledge by promoting improved trainee engagement and understanding. Virtual reality or three dimensional (3D) visualization is often used to promote the understanding of something when personal observation, photographs, drawings, and/or sketches are not possible or available. Subjects and situations, either real or hypothetical, can be developed using a 3D model. Models can be tailored to the audience allowing safeguards and security features to be demonstrated for educational purposes in addition to engineering evaluation and performance analysis. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has begun evaluating the feasibility of HIVEs for improving safeguards activities such as training, mission planning, and evaluating worker task performance. This paper will discuss the development workflow of HIVEs and present some recent examples.
