Health and Safety

To reduce the risk of personal injury, discomfort, or property damange, please ensure that each user reads the health and safety guidelines of the VR systems below.

Headsets

For individual headset’s Health and Safety guidelines, please refer to the links below.

Oculus Headsets (any versions)

View their health and safety guidelines here

Oculus Health and Safety Center

Vive Headsets (any versions)

Vive Safety Document

General

If you experience any of the below listed symptoms, we recommend using the Facilitate “desktop” version instead of the VR version.

• Eye strain

• Dryness of mouth

• Disorientation

• Nausea

• Headache

• Sweating

• Fullness of stomach

• Vertigo

• Vomiting.

If you experience any of the following pre-existing medical conditions, we recommend consulting with your doctor before using a VR device. Please note the Facilitate desktop version is available if appropriate.

• Seizures;

• Interference with Medical Devices;

• Pregnancy;

If any form of discomfort is experienced whilst using a VR headset, immediately discontinue using the headset.

For more information, please refer to the Health and Safety documents of the individual headset manifacturer.

Your play space and surroundings

The Faciliate VR app might require users to move around in a physical space (e.g. for Micro-simulations).Whilst many experiences in Facilitate can be seated in a swivel chair, we still recommend clearing enough space for a minimum 2 x 2m use area.

Each headset has guidance on creating a safe play area, minimising the risk of injury or property damage. Please read these sections carefully.

If the minimum safe play area is not available, we recommend using the Facilitate desktop app.

There are our recommendations to creating a dedicated space for VR usage:

1. This space should have smooth, even flooring free from trip hazards.

2. The space should be big enough to allow full movement during the experience/s; test the size of the space before use with novice users.

   1.  Remove all furniture except the swivel chair/s, and maybe a cabinet for storing the headsets.

   2.  Remove all breakable objects within the space.

3. Ensure the space has good WiFi access.

4. Ensure the space is quiet as this will help with maintaining immersion.

5. Ensure the space does not have a lot of direct sunlight as this can interfere with the tracking of headsets.

6. Ensure swivel chairs are provided for seated experiences to avoid twisting motions when using 360-degree content.

7. Ensure that the space is protected from people accidentally entering; appropriate signage to indicate space is in use is recommended.

8. Ensure the maximum user numbers per space is not exceeded

9. Provide sanitation materials (wipes or cleaning apparatus) within close proximity of a shared headset storage or usage area

   1. Fully automatic headset cleaning devices are an option for high volume usage, such as those offered by Cleanbox Technologies or UV Clean Tech.

   2. Also desirable are headsets with removable ‘face cushions’ such as HTC’s Focus 3.

Headset set up per user

1. Ensure an adequate virtual guardian is created for each user.

2. Ensure users know how to adjust the headset properly; this is essential to avoid eye strain and minimise cybersickness.

3. Ensure that headsets are charged and updated (both the operating system and any content); a mass device management and content platform are recommended in this regard.