Even banks are fun in the goggleeyed future
● It’s not an everyday sight yet, but soon it could be: trainee doctors in hitech goggles waving their arms above a lifeless mannequin on a bed.
When this scene played out at a Cape Town hospital this week, it provided a glimpse of the virtual-reality (VR) future: medical students learning in a simulated environment how to understand, diagnose and treat patients.
VR is a big part of the vaunted “fourth industrial revolution”, and experts say SA is ripe for it — although the price tag can be an obstacle. The system being demonstrated at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital, for example, costs R2m.
Niki McQueen, communications coordinator for information and communication technology services at the University of Cape Town, said VR could revolutionise many areas of tertiary education.
Although the initial cost was high it could save money in the long term.
“A good example would be in the medical field, where the dissection of cadavers … could be done more efficiently in a VR environment,” she said.
“And students of biology could see, as close to first-hand as possible, creatures they would never experience in a lifetime of study.”
At Wits University’s Origins Centre, VR has been used to bring our ancient past to life. Software engineer Professor Barry Dwolatzky, founder of the Tshimologong Precinct innovation hub, worked with a small start-up called Alt Reality to re-create aspects of the museum that could be enjoyed through goggles.
He described how high-resolution images of a cave in the Drakensberg with “amazing” rock art were stitched together to create a VR image.
“As you look through the goggles, you see in 3D the actual view from the cave. You also see the rock art,” he said, adding that he marvelled at “taking something so ancient and marrying it with something so cutting-edge from the 21st century”.
Johannesburg VR pioneer Gerald Ferreira has a range of clients for his company Virtual-Reality, but the big ones are the banks. “They are always looking for marketing solutions because banking is essentially a boring product,” he said.
For one bank, “we put in a high-end VR system with free games, so a customer can virtually bake a cake inside a bank. They do everything from breaking the eggs into a bowl to mixing the
Customers can virtually bake a cake in a bank Gerald Ferreira
VR pioneer
batter — but then halfway through, the electricity in their virtual world goes off and they must decide what to do.”
Through this, clients discovered the joys of buying electricity through online banking.
Sometimes, clients were looking for pure entertainment, which is why this week he witnessed a man panic while walking along a plank above the tops of skyscrapers at a product event he had created. The plank was real, the skyscrapers were not.
Will VR reach homes? According to McQueen, yes, because it will become so mainstream the costs will drop.
“As technology improves, prices drop and content becomes more freely available, watching your favourite movie or series on a VR headset may become the new norm.”
But as with all technology, there is a word of caution. McQueen added: “I hope we don’t become so immersed in a virtual world that we forget to live in this one.”