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Walmart Is Putting 17,000 Oculus Go Headsets In Its Stores To Help Train Employees In VR (techcrunch.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the workplace-training dept.

Walmart is reportedly planning to send Oculus Go headsets to each of its nearly 5,000 stores so that more of its employees can get instruction more often. TechCrunch reports: The big box giant will begin sending four headsets to each Walmart supercenter and two headsets to each Neighborhood Market in the country. That may not necessarily seem like a ton to train a store full of employees, but at Walmart's scale that amounts to about 17,000 headsets being shipped by year's end. The move is the evolution of an announcement that the company made last year that it was working with STRIVR Labs to bring virtual reality training to its 200 "Walmart Academy" training centers. Those training sessions were done on PC-tethered Oculus Rifts, the move to Oculus Go headsets really showcases how much more simple standalone headset hardware is to set up and operate.

17 of 27 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds good by Patent+Lover · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Now their employees can practice getting their food stamps in virtual reality.

    1. Re:Sounds good by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      Many employees will be able to practice throwing up their food bought with food stamps, as a result of virtual reality.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    2. Re: Sounds good by datavirtue · · Score: 1

      Yeah. They don't have training problems they have engagement problems. Shame, they could have easily been the greatest retailer the world has ever known. They are blowing it.

      --
      I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
    3. Re:Sounds good by Desler · · Score: 1

      It's not the Walmart way if it's not a soul-crushing experience. Like having to do a daily chant before work starts.

  2. Economies of scale by Grokko · · Score: 1

    According to Statistica, there are almost 12,000 Wal-Marts worldwide: https://www.statista.com/stati...

    17k handsets, is almost 1.5 per store. I don't know the distribution of them. That point is vague.

    The interesting part is the fact that Wal-Mart is experimenting with VR, specifically Oculus. The amount is actually underwhelming, in a relative way.

    1. Re:Economies of scale by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      C'mon, educating them would take the fun out of going to an Apple Genius Bar and messing with them. You'd actually have to come up with a complicated problem if their IQ went into the two digits.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:Economies of scale by Pascoea · · Score: 1

      four headsets to each Walmart supercenter and two headsets to each Neighborhood Market in the country

      Didn't even make it to the 2nd line of the summary?

  3. Next? by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

    Previous article, Octopus, now Oculus, next is something on Oculyst?

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    Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    1. Re:Next? by SlashdotOgre · · Score: 1

      I am actually glad you pointed that out. I had glanced on the page and read this article as Walmart Putting 17,000 Octopuses.. and was really confused (and admittedly interested). Glad to know it was probably due to my eyes seeing that second article title in the same glance, and I wasn't just having a stroke.

      --
      Sadly, PS/2 was yet another victim of USB, which doesn't care what you plug into it, the electrical slut.
  4. Re:Dumb idea by SpaceDave · · Score: 2

    I really don't see the point of this. VR is pretty much dead.

    People keep saying that. It keeps not being true.

  5. Already doing it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    So, My auntie works as an assistance manager at a walmart. During their training there is already (at least the location she trained at) VR Gear to train with. They use the gear to view various locations in the store. They managers connect to the cameras and look around, and apparently there is some voodoo magic with the cameras that make it appear as though you can see through things. It was a cool setup.

  6. kfc has an really bad one by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  7. Really? by grep+-v+'.*'+* · · Score: 1

    Manna? Is that you?

    --
    If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
  8. Re: why? by datavirtue · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately, Walmart is a far better retailer than Target. Target is all about keeping middle class mom and her daughters coming in to waste money. They nailed that. The rest of thier juju is fucked.

    --
    I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
  9. Re:Dumb idea by Desler · · Score: 1

    How so? Even the highest-selling headsets have barely sold a couple a million over a multiple year time period. The whole thing is stillborn.

  10. Nostradamus at work by The+Snazster · · Score: 1

    This sounds like it could be the beginning of the Manna program described many years ago by self-proclaimed futurist Marshall Brain on his web site. Pretty soon they could be wearing the things at work, every day, all day while a computer program monitors their locations, assigns tasks, times them, and collects feedback. Be afraid, be very afraid (although that won't help because it is probably inevitable).

  11. Limited power supply by nanospook · · Score: 1

    Congratulations Walmart Employee! Your shift is now only two hours long

    --
    Have you fscked your local propeller head today?