HONG Kong's leading global ship manager Anglo-Eastern showcased its state-of-the art virtual reality training hardware at a recent press lunch.
'Millennials love technology and have grown up playing with technology,' said Anglo-Eastern training chief Pradeep Chawla. 'Thus, learning in virtual reality is exciting yet safe, providing a risk-free environment in which they learn skills before transitioning to real-life situations.'
At the lunch, journalists donned masks through which they could see a ship as if they were aboard. One could go to the bridge and push the simulator's buttons to effect changes in the ship's direction, call up radar to locate other ships in the vicinity or chart to navigate reefs and shoals.
This reporter found himself more interested in going below and learning about the ingress and egress of ballast water on containerships, and under expert guidance of Anglo-Eastern experts, was told how multi-metre wide tanks (four metres wide in the case of a 10,000-TEUers) parallel to the hull, encasing the container slots were flooded and flushed.
This simulator training hardware and attendant software are now central to Anglo-Eastern's network of maritime training centres and the Anglo-Eastern Maritime Academy in Karjat, India, which together house numerous such environments for crew and officer training.
Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), however - which recreate or augment reality by digital means - are still relatively new to the industry,' said the company statement.
Said Anglo-Eastern CEO Bjorn Hojgaard: 'We are proud of our academy, where we train 440 cadets each year, and are confident that such training will develop seafarers' analytical skills, while helping to build critical thinking and problem-solving.'
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'Millennials love technology and have grown up playing with technology,' said Anglo-Eastern training chief Pradeep Chawla. 'Thus, learning in virtual reality is exciting yet safe, providing a risk-free environment in which they learn skills before transitioning to real-life situations.'
At the lunch, journalists donned masks through which they could see a ship as if they were aboard. One could go to the bridge and push the simulator's buttons to effect changes in the ship's direction, call up radar to locate other ships in the vicinity or chart to navigate reefs and shoals.
This reporter found himself more interested in going below and learning about the ingress and egress of ballast water on containerships, and under expert guidance of Anglo-Eastern experts, was told how multi-metre wide tanks (four metres wide in the case of a 10,000-TEUers) parallel to the hull, encasing the container slots were flooded and flushed.
This simulator training hardware and attendant software are now central to Anglo-Eastern's network of maritime training centres and the Anglo-Eastern Maritime Academy in Karjat, India, which together house numerous such environments for crew and officer training.
Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), however - which recreate or augment reality by digital means - are still relatively new to the industry,' said the company statement.
Said Anglo-Eastern CEO Bjorn Hojgaard: 'We are proud of our academy, where we train 440 cadets each year, and are confident that such training will develop seafarers' analytical skills, while helping to build critical thinking and problem-solving.'
WORLD SHIPPING