Virtual Multimedia Environment to Teach Safety Procedures in Laboratories

Abstract

The use of laboratories is important to teach several subjects, but the students are susceptible to accidents. Therefore a virtual 3D environment in first-person that presents several emergency situations that can occur during a practical class in a laboratory will be developed and validated. The software UDK Engine 3, Maya 2013, Photoshop CS5, ShaderMap Pro, Zbrush 4r3 and Adobe Flash 11 were used. The safety procedures adopted were the standards of the Regulating Rules of the Ministry of Labor and of the Brazilian Association of Technical Standards (ABNT) and of the Environmental Protection Agency - EPA. The evaluation was done with a group of 30 students regarding interfaces and realism, and with a group of 30 laboratory practices professors regarding the concepts presented. The results showed a great approval between the two groups and in the next phase of the research a validation will be done regarding the learning of the safety procedures by the students in the virtual environment in comparison to a conventional class.