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XR and AI, explained simply

Extended reality, artificial intelligence and rapid prototyping each cover several different things at once. These guides define each one, compare the formats side by side, and mark where each fits and where it does not.

A cafe scenario for practising supported movement.

Written for the people who have to choose

These guides are for the people choosing technology in healthcare, government, education and enterprise, with the limits stated as plainly as the benefits. Each one is short, defines its term, and ends with the questions that decide whether it is the right fit.

XR basics

Extended reality runs from a digital label on a phone screen to a room that has been replaced entirely. The guides below take one format each.

A facilitator explains the spectrum to two people standing where a plain gallery room gives way to a virtual landscape. A VR training scenario for what is extended reality.

What is XR? One word for the whole spectrum: how immersive tools differ from a flat screen.

A crew member in a high-visibility shirt and hard hat, wearing a headset, turns quickly on a plant-area concrete pad and raises an arm to signal, practising an emergency response.

What is virtual reality? A room you cannot stage, and can practise in anyway: spatial, procedural and conversational practice in a headset.

A printed model gains an augmented-reality layer, seen through a phone held over the page.

What is augmented reality? A label on the real thing: digital overlays on your view of the physical world through a phone, a tablet or light glasses.

A ward scenario for practising feedback conversations.

What is mixed reality? A hologram beside real equipment: physical surroundings and digital objects sharing the same room in real time.

A young woman wearing a VR headset faces a floating panel of three choices in an empty classroom, pausing mid-scenario to decide how she responds

VR vs AR vs MR. The same office, three ways to see it: a side-by-side comparison before choosing one.

A player stands between two exits. A first person rapid prototyping scenario for games and interactive experiences, seen through the headset.

Branching scenarios and AI characters. A written branch or an AI partner: which suits the practice.

AI basics

AI means systems that learn patterns from large amounts of data, then use those patterns to write text, sort information, recognise an image or suggest a response.

The guides below cover what that does well, where it fails, and what a digital twin is.

A learner sorts tokens beside a facilitator. A VR training scenario for what is AI.

What is AI? Plain language, no magic: how modern systems learn from data, what they do well, and why human oversight stays essential.

What is a digital twin? Two meanings, two very different rooms: the engineering model of a physical system, and the conversational twin that answers in a person's own words.

An adult wearing a headset sits facing a floating head-and-shoulders presence of a subject-matter expert digital twin, backed by soft abstract light, practising a one-to-one conversation.

AI and XR. A character that answers back inside the scene: how language and voice systems make practice adapt to the learner.

Three practice partners at separate points in a demonstration space, each beside its own interaction point. A first person AI roleplay scenario for AI roleplay and practice.

AI for training and roleplay. The conversation you can run again: a private, low-stakes place to practise difficult exchanges.

Comparing and deciding

Start with the outcome, then where the audience will use it, then the devices and systems already in place.

A man wearing a VR headset leans over a service counter, facing a floating panel of three choices, deciding how to respond in this roleplay scenario.

Choosing the right technology. Decide by the room, not the acronym: VR, AR, MR, AI and rapid prototypes compared, with the questions to ask first.

Three people sort tokens beside an analytics display. A VR training scenario for immersive VR training questions answered.

Frequently asked questions. The questions people ask before a session: formats, accessibility, target platforms and what happens to the data.

Participants swap positions during a staged roleplay.

Choosing a training provider. Four kinds of roleplay training provider, each described from its own site.

The conversations staff rehearse

Speaking up, hard conversations, the council counter and the support worker’s shift. Each guide sets out the rules and how to design the rehearsal.

Speaking up for safety. The concern and the response, rehearsed on both sides, with Mater’s own program evaluation.

A manager rehearses a performance conversation across a small table.

Difficult conversations. Feedback and performance conversations, and two published studies of VR diversity and inclusion training.

A frustrated man leans across a public service counter, seen from the officer’s position.

Council staff, de-escalation. Counter, enforcement and lone-visit rehearsals built around the safety system.

A support worker sits beside an older woman in a sunroom.

NDIS worker training. From orientation to the participant’s plan, with England and New York compared.

A bearded man in a navy jacket talks across a table to two colleagues, a tablet of coloured shapes between them. — A consultation across a table, tablet between them.

And the question that comes before the technology

Nobody has a virtual reality line in their budget. Every build PTR has delivered was paid for out of money already committed to something else, and the precedents are written up in one place.

How a first build gets paid for

The two lines every Australian hospital is assessed against

The national standards a hospital is accredited under have one action about mandatory training and one about aggression at the bedside. Both are explained in the Commission's own words, with the source.

Inside the Mater build: an older patient sits up in a hospital bed, a meal tray across the blanket, curtains drawn beside him.

NSQHS Action 1.20, training. What the standard asks of a mandatory training program, and what an assessor looks for.

A simulated emergency department triage desk at night. A triage nurse in the headset sits at the desk while a man stands at the counter, agitated but not aggressive.

NSQHS Action 5.34, aggression. The line about the shift where somebody raises their voice, and how staff rehearse it.

Psychosocial hazards. What the codes ask of an employer, and where the hierarchy of controls puts practice.

A charge nurse in green scrubs briefs nurses at a ward station, a headset visible among them.

Workplace violence, United States. Which United States rules require the training, how often, and the four that name practice as the method.

Occupational violence, Australia. What WHS law asks of employers, state by state, and how staff practise it.

CPI training alternatives. How CPI, Mandt and VR or AI rehearsal differ, and how they fit together.

A nurse leader wearing a headset stands in a ward corridor facing two simulated colleagues, one of whom has looked away.

Joint Commission, workplace violence. Goal 02.04.01 read element by element: who is trained, how often, and what a surveyor asks to see.

A clinician wearing a headset stands at a hospital bedside facing a simulated patient propped up on pillows, practising the bedside conversation in a ward that looks like the ward.

Nevada, workplace violence. The statute that requires de-escalation practice with colleagues and a debrief of each session.

A ward round seen from inside the headset.

Washington, health care. Eleven topics, ninety days from hire, and the one item that names hands-on practice or role play.

A store manager serves a customer from behind a click-and-collect counter. A VR training scenario for workplace and enterprise.

California SB 553. What the general industry law requires, and the health care standard that names de-escalation.

A front-desk supervisor helps an older guest. A VR training scenario for workplace and enterprise.

New York retail safety. The six topics, the annual and biennial cycles, and whether the free State model is enough.

Training records. The five fields a training record must carry, four retention periods, and who can ask to see it.

A care worker in a headset stands beside a bed in a simulated aged care room, a resident seated in an armchair on one side and a family member standing on the other.

Schools, de-escalation. Eight hours a year, five areas, and the one a regulator will not let you deliver online.

Does VR training work. What the controlled studies measured, and what they found.

What a reviewer and a developer each ask for next

One page carries the identifiers, the processing locations, the consent position and the documents a procurement, clinical governance or security reviewer reads. Another carries the widget embed, its events, the machine-readable site and the PTR API and SDK.

Governance for regulated buyers Developers

Where the ideas on this hub turn into rooms

Every term explained here has a place it happens: a choice between access methods, a technician beside an overlay, a facilitator among decision zones, two practice routes side by side.

A wheelchair user compares access methods. A VR training scenario for XR and AI concepts explained simply. — A wheelchair user weighs phone against controller.

A technician stands by an overlay. A first person VR training scenario for XR and AI concepts explained simply, seen through the headset. — A technician points to a workshop overlay.

A facilitator stands among decision zones. A VR training scenario for XR and AI concepts explained simply. — A facilitator stands among decision zones.

Two guides stand on separate practice routes. A first person VR training scenario for XR and AI concepts explained simply, seen through the headset. — Two guides stand on separate practice routes.

Written from the rooms, not about them

The definitions on this hub come from sessions PTR has run and builds it has shipped, and each guide links to the work it draws on.

A full room of seated guests watches a presentation at the launch of the PTR VR Library, with PeopleTech Revolution slides on two screens. — PTR launches its VR Library in Townsville, July 2024.

The Townsville launch

The PTR VR Library launched at Smart Precinct NQ in Townsville in July 2024, in front of a full room.

The guides explain the terms that room first heard that night. They cover what a headset does to a room, what a character that answers back is, and how to choose between them.

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