Posted March 01, 2017 16:32:56

A ground-breaking partnership between university researchers and a virtual reality start-up will allow people to experience the future before it arrives.

Researchers at the SMART Infrastructure Facility at the University of Wollongong design a wide range of projects, from roads and rail to tsunami warning systems in Jakarta.

In a deal to be announced on Thursday, they will team up with a couple of young tech entrepreneurs who specialise in creating virtual reality learning systems.

Although the entrepreneurs' company, Devika, was only founded eight months ago, the start-up is researching applications that would allow trainee firefighters to experience the inside of a burning house, or even what it is like to walk on the moon.

For professor Pascal Perez, the head of the facility, the opportunity is there for people to drive a road like WestConnex in Sydney and experience the benefits.

It was associate professor Robert Gorkin's encounter with a virtual reality blue whale that started the process.

He was so impressed by the virtual reality program created by the young entrepreneurs that he could see uses for it everywhere.

"'The first experience I had, you were actually sitting on a deck of a sunken ship, and you're watching all the sea life just swim by you. Every direction you look at, you see something different," he said.

Mr Gorkin specialises in connecting start-ups with universities.

Devika was founded by Ken Kencevski, 27, and his friend, Brennan Hatton, 24.

The two paired up after Mr Hatton returned from a stint in Silicon Valley designing augmented reality glasses.

"One of the things about communicating virtual reality is you can't do it justice with photos or videos," Mr Hatton said.

"It's something that you really just have to experience to understand.

"It's like explaining what Yosemite National Park is like. You can't actually experience Yosemite unless you go there."

Mr Gorkin introduced the pair to Professor Perez, who, in his earlier career, had done work on interactive simulation, plus a lot of serious gaming.

Professor Perez strongly believes the best way to change people's behaviour is not through words, but through experience.

"I used to tell my students that to enjoy a cake, the best way to have people enjoying the cake is to ask them to be part of making the cake in the first place," he said.

"If they've been part of the recipe, when everybody shares the cake at the end, there's maybe a better response than if you buy it from somewhere else."

Professor Perez saw the potential for virtual reality to allow people to experience the future before it happened, and therefore to discover that there was less to fear about it than they had once thought.

The Wollongong facility specialises in infrastructure planning, from roads to tsunami warning systems, and he sees virtual reality as an extraordinary tool for learning.

Although Mr Hatton concedes there are pitfalls to virtual reality that it will become more compelling than actual reality his view of the future is optimistic.

"I think there are a lot of people who have already retracted themselves from reality," he said.

"I think that they would be retracted from reality with or without this technology and this technology has a huge potential to connect them to reality.

"You can stay at home but you can still have a social experience. You can walk up and talk to people.

"You actually build those communication skills so much more than if you were just stuck at home."

Topics: information-technology, university-and-further-education, university-of-wollongong-2522

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Virtual reality deal helps create the future before it arrives at Wollongong university facility - ABC Online