An engineer is 30 feet up on a mobile crane, conducting a routine LOLER inspection. Or they’re setting up a scissor lift and need to verify PUWER compliance. Either way, they need access to maintenance records, defect reports and technical drawings.
They also need to keep both hands free to stay safe.
Currently, they’re stuck. Either they climb down repeatedly, wasting hours, or rely on outdated printed docs or memory – all of which introduce human error. A rugged tablet seems obvious but requires hands-on use and screen size is fundamentally limited. Engineers end up abandoning digital tools altogether. When you’re working at height or in harsh conditions, this becomes a safety issue.
That’s why we’re exploring VR safety inspections, to see how immersive, hands-free technology can improve both safety and efficiency in the field.
How VR Inspections Could Expand Our View of Safety
We’ve invested in Apple Vision Pro headsets to explore whether virtual reality can solve the problem where tablets cannot. Our goal is to develop what appears to be the world’s first VR interface designed for real-time access to compliance data during live industrial operations.
The concept is straightforward but potentially transformative. An engineer wearing a VR headset could access full-scale drawings, inspection histories, maintenance records and high-resolution photographic evidence simultaneously. All visible in a spatial environment that mirrors three-dimensional work.
In real terms, your team accesses every document they need, at full detail, regardless of location or conditions.
And, crucially, it could be hands free.
But how hands-free interaction works remains part of the exploration. Eye tracking for asset recognition and document navigation. Voice commands for rapid files access. A finger pinch to zoom in to detail. Swipes to navigate menus. All replacing traditional button inputs – ideal when your engineer is wearing safety gloves.
The combination of these inputs, integrated seamlessly with our safety inspection software CheckedOK, is what the research will test.
“We’ve seen countless situations where engineers have the right information at their fingertips, but getting their hands on it at the right time remains problematic,” said Munzi Ali, Managing Director of CoreRFID. “VR offers the potential to create unlimited screen size within a spatial environment that makes sense to engineers working in three-dimensional spaces.”
Our project is a significant departure from existing VR safety applications, which typically focus on training simulations or hazard awareness in controlled environments. We’re targeting actual field operations. Real inspections, real compliance requirements, real safety outcomes.
Why Apple, and Why Now?
We selected Apple Vision Pro based on the device data provided by CheckedOK users, which shows a slight preference for Apple devices, alongside accessibility for our developers.
It’s rooted in real user behaviour.
VR technology has reached a point where this exploration is viable. The hardware is still expensive – genuinely prohibitive for widespread adoption currently – but the capability is no longer theoretical. We see this as an investment in employee safety, rather than a cost-cutting measure. The short-term expense buys access to a tried-and-tested solution as VR headsets become consumer-grade technology and costs inevitably fall. By then, the engineering will be done.
2025 has been a year of people investment, with resources now allocated to explore multiple R&D projects alongside this VR initiative. We’re committing serious effort to problems that matter to the industries we serve, rather than waiting for solutions to emerge elsewhere.
The Research Ahead
Proof-of-concept development is starting to take place at our Liverpool headquarters; first exploring the hardware’s capabilities, then simulating common inspection environments and workflows. The goal is to test whether VR realistically improves information access during live operations and whether engineers can work effectively while wearing the headset. What integration challenges emerge when connecting VR to our compliance platform, CheckedOK? Can eye tracking, voice commands and gesture recognition be combined intuitively?
If initial proof-of-concept succeeds, we’ll then work with partners to move into field-based simulations. These simulations will range from controlled environments to real-world conditions, testing how VR performs in varied environments and across different inspection types.
Once viability is established using Apple Vision Pro, we plan to expand research to Meta Quest and Microsoft HoloLens platforms. A multi-platform approach will ensure the solution isn’t locked into a single ecosystem and tests whether the benefits hold across different hardware configurations.
“We’re solving a problem that affects safety outcomes,” Munzi Ali added. “If we can eliminate the information barriers between digital systems and field operations, the benefits could be substantial.”
The Bigger Picture
This research and development project is less about replacing tablets with fancy new tech, and more about asking if the constraints of current technology are indeed constraints, or if we’ve just accepted them as inevitable.
Engineers working at height with both hands occupied shouldn’t have to choose between safety and access. That isn’t a choice. It’s a limitation of their tools.
If VR can solve it, any field operation where ease of access matters – inspections, maintenance, emergency response, complex assembly tasks – all become possible in ways it currently isn’t.
The research timeline remains experimental. There’s no commercial release date, as we simply don’t know how far we can stretch this technology, or how long it will take to complete the extensive research required. If successful, our exploration into VR safety inspections could redefine how engineers access critical safety information on-site.
And that’s something worth our time.