VR brings world into view, breaks down barriers

YANGON, Myanmar — Gasps echo across the hall as the school kids trial virtual reality goggles, marveling at a device that allows some of Asia’s poorest people to walk on the moon or dive beneath the waves.

“In Myanmar we can’t afford much to bring students to the real world experience,” said Hla Hla Win, a teacher and tech entrepreneur taking virtual reality into the classroom.

“If they’re learning about animals, we can’t take them to the zoo ... 99 percent of parents don’t have time, don’t have money, don’t have the means.”

Few countries have experienced such rapid discovery of technology than Myanmar, which has leapfrogged from the analogue to the digital era in just a few years.

Phone towers are springing up around the country and almost 80 percent of the population have access to the internet through smartphones, according to telecoms giant Telenor.

Tech startups are emerging around the commercial capital Yangon, many seeking to improve the lives of rural people, most of whom still live without paved roads or electricity.

“The increase in activity from last year till now — new startups, more people determined to become entrepreneurs and working in the tech sector in general — is significant,” said Jes Kaliebe Peterson, CEO of community hub Phandeeyar.

Virtual reality is the latest advance to cause a stir, with a handful of entrepreneurs embracing tech for projects including preserving ancient temple sites to shaping young minds of the future.

The Phandeeyar incubator works with more than 140 startups. Among them Hla Hla Win’s virtual reality social enterprise 360ed which is using affordable cardboard VR goggles attached to smartphones to break down barriers in Myanmar’s classrooms.

She founded the nonprofit last year after 17 years working in the education system.

“I see it as an empathy machine where we can teleport ourselves to another place right away,” she said.

While 360ed is thinking about the future, Nyi Lin Seck is obsessed with the past.

About 600 kilometers north of Yangon, the founder of 3xvivr Virtual Reality Production launches a large drone into the skies above Bagan, one of Myanmar’s most famous tourist sites.

The drone, which carries a 360-degree-camera, circles one of the many temples that dot the landscape of what was once a sprawling ancient city.

The data it records allows those with virtual reality headsets to explore the temples, their centuries-old walls so close it feels like you can touch them.

A former head of the local TV station, Nyi Lin Seck says he makes most of his money providing virtual reality footage for hotels and apartments.

But after an earthquake damaged the site last year, he vowed to preserve a digital replica of Myanmar’s archaeological treasures.

“A lot of artworks on the pagodas collapsed and were lost. Using this technology, we can record up to 99 percent of the ancient art,” he said.