We live in a world of evolving threats, from a global pandemic to civil unrest and a relentless stream of online hostilities. Head Set's vision is to build a safer and more resilient generation of people who work in hostile environments using cutting edge virtual reality training and emotion-sensing technology.
Founded by former journalists Kate Parkinson and Aela Callan, Head Set offers innovative immersive masterclasses based on their own experiences of feeling under prepared in dangerous situations. This is revolutionising the way journalists and humanitarian workers train for work in dangerous situations.
Backed by an impressive team of software developers, data scientists and psychologists, this project will bring to life a self awareness tool that helps participants to regulate their emotions using real-time biometric feedback on fully mobile VR headsets. This will pave the way for more individualised and effective training programmes using immersive technology.
Head Set's goal is to make training affordable, accessible and inclusive for everyone who faces risk or trauma at work, empowering them to stay safe mentally and physically. We're building this world, within arms reach of a headset.
My journey to becoming a business innovator started unconventionally in 2011, during the Arab Spring. I was a journalist covering the civil war in Libya when my cameraman, and husband, Oliver Sarbil, was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. Despite having had hostile environment training, I froze and couldn't remember what to do. Remarkably, Olivier survived, but I suffered post-traumatic stress for years, linked to my body's response at that moment and a feeling of helplessness.
This set me on a new path, demanding an overhaul of the approach the media takes to safety training and better access to mental and emotional support for those who risk their lives doing dangerous work.
Two years ago, I co-founded Head Set along with fellow foreign correspondent, Aela Callan. We're building an immersive learning ecosystem that shows people how to stay safe with a strong mindset. Our mission is to use VR and other immersive technologies to build a more resilient generation of journalists, humanitarian workers and first responders.
Hostile environments are everywhere for journalists. They no longer need to travel to a war zone to be on the front line. Arrests, physical assaults, public denigration and harassment of journalists is increasing around the globe. Current hostile environment training is failing to address new threats from street protests to the COVID-19 pandemic and becoming a target on twitter.
Using real stories and a unique visual style, Head Set's immersive training is designed to evoke intense emotions and show people how to deal with them. Head Set brings highly relevant immersive scenarios directly to journalists wherever they are in the world. They can train remotely in VR with a trainer, or in person in the classroom. It's already being used by some of the world's top news organisations.
I'll be using this award to build a virtual mentoring system to help journalists build resilience towards the psychological challenges of hostile environments.
When journalism is under threat, democracy is under threat. The next few years will be decisive for the future of journalism. Head Set is playing a crucial role in a upholding a more robust media, which ensures access to freely reported, independent, diverse and reliable information.
Globally, there has never been a more dangerous time to report the news. The Committee to Protect Journalists says 99 media workers were killed in 2018, the highest in years. Our vision is to revolutionise the way journalists protect themselves in emergencies by training in high-pressure, immersive scenarios. Using cutting-edge VR technology and biometric data, journalists will be able to practise skills and improve decision making under stress in ways that are more immersive and responsive than ever before.
Hostile environment and first aid training saves lives but it is currently expensive and time-consuming, costing media companies tens of millions of pounds and taking busy journalists out of the newsroom for up to a week. These training courses are not easily repeatable and most journalists experience significant skill fade within months or even weeks. Cost and inconvenience also prevent many local journalists and freelancers from receiving training, yet news organisations increasingly rely on them to go into dangerous situations.
Using stories based on real events from protests, terror attacks and other emergencies, Also Known As (AKA) and project partners, Modux, are prototyping a virtual reality (VR) experience that responds to the stress levels of a participant. This project will investigate how state-of-the-art ways to measure the stress hormone cortisol can drive the narrative of the training scenario.
This VR experience will be delivered in conjunction with industry-leading trainers at leading news companies in the UK. The findings of the project will increase the potential of immersive training beyond journalists to all professions operating in dangerous or high-stakes environments such as humanitarian and aid workers, emergency responders, diplomats and corporate travellers.
AKA is an immersive tech company run by two former foreign correspondents with years of experience working in hostile environments for major global news outlets. Based on their own experience of a life or death emergency in the field and after months of ethnographic research into the needs of colleagues, they are teaming up with immersive training and psychology experts to vastly improve the training on offer.
Project partners Modux, along with psychologist and VR veteran Professor Robert Stone, have produced world-first training simulations for defence and corporate clients, such as the Royal College of Defence Medicine, the Royal Navy, police and firefighters. Combining their impressive body of research with AKA's storytelling acumen, they will develop innovative products that go beyond anything on offer in the VR training market.
"In today's information ecosystem, threats to the lives of people who deliver the news are constantly evolving. Despite the obvious risks of reporting from wars, disasters, remote or inhospitable locations, many journalists, including camera crews and support staff, go into the field without adequate safety knowledge and life saving skills.
In the past 15 years, more than 450 journalists have been killed while working in hostile environments. Newsrooms and insurers spend millions of pounds per year on training, safety and security measures that fail to equip journalists with the ability and confidence to act in high stress situations.
Virtual, mixed and augmented reality technologies are transforming the way education and training is conducted with the ability to immerse participants in high pressure scenarios that are impossible to replicate in the classroom or with hands-on courses. This so called 'extended reality' (XR) combines real and virtual environments and allows for human-machine interactions. By practicing first aid and survival skills inside a heart-thumping simulation of a real emergency, research shows participants learn faster and retain life saving knowledge for longer.
This project looks at how immersive technologies can transform the way journalists are trained for hostile environments, without even leaving the newsroom. We believe XR could ultimately save lives by reducing the amount of time and money news organisations and insurers spend to ensure safety, making it easier to refresh and update skills while also becoming more accessible to freelancers.
'Also Known As' is a virtual reality storytelling, research and design studio run by former journalists Aela Callan and Kate Parkinson who have decades of experience working in hostile environments for international broadcasters such as Associated Press, Sky News, Al Jazeera and CGTN.
With Design Foundations funding, they will use their backgrounds in journalism, immersive technology and human centred design to conduct ethnographic research and generate innovative ideas with other relevant experts. Their work will directly engage key stakeholders in the industry, understanding motivations and market demand, while prototyping potential solutions to make their ideas investor ready."
"Despite technology connecting more people than ever, the space for debating polarising issues seems to be shrinking. Whether it's refugees, migration, Me Too, Trump or Brexit, it's easier to stay in a bubble with those who agree with us, than to hear alternate views.
Noticing an ever widening chasm in public discourse, documentary filmmaker Aela Callan and war correspondent Kate Parkinson teamed up to find ways that technology and storytelling can be used to bridge entrenched divides.
The result is "The Distance Between Us", an exploration of how state of the art, virtual reality technology and documentary content can be used to break echo chambers and stimulate constructive, real world conversations.
Using Design Foundations funding, they will research how interactive storytelling in VR can be used to foster understanding and common ground between people who hold opposing views. Their experiments will allow them to develop deep insights about their target audience, and design a narrative journey that strengthens software development of the experience.
The final goal for "The Distance Between Us" is to realise a room scale, social VR experience at major conferences, festivals and events. This will be a VR installation unique in the way it unites several people inside the VR world, merging hard-hitting storytelling with levels of interactivity usually reserved for game play.
Drawing on their combined 30 years of storytelling experience, Aela and Kate co-founded "Also Known As", a virtual reality storytelling, research and design studio which collaborates with software developers, game designers, artists and live performers to realise game changing immersive experiences."