KUCHING – Swinburne University of Technology’s Sarawak campus launched a 360-degree virtual reality (VR) smartphone application called ‘Kuching VR’ recently.
Officiated by the Chief Minister of Sarawak and Swinburne Sarawak’s Pro-Chancellor YAB Datuk Patinggi Amar (Dr) Abang Haji Abdul Rahman Zohari bin Tun Datuk Abang Haji Openg, ‘Kuching VR’ gives users an immersive experience that enables them to see some of the city’s landmarks and tourist attractions in addition to the university’s 16.5acre city campus.
Professor John Wilson, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer of Swinburne Sarawak said that the application highlights Swinburne’s expertise in the field of Extended Reality (XR), an umbrella term encapsulating Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), mixed reality (MR) and everything in between.
“We have an expert faculty, the tools and the graduates to showcase our capabilities in this high-demand industry, so it is no surprise that many global companies like Shell and Microsoft engage our faculty and students,” said Professor Wilson.
“It is our view that in the future, we will interact with the virtual and real world in a seamless manner as depicted in some Hollywood movies today. This new modality of human and machine interaction will pave the way for new and exciting experiences thus requiring graduates skilled in the creation of XR content”, he added.
Kuching VR is a project funded and governed by the Marketing and Student Recruitment department of the university to create global awareness about Kuching and Swinburne in particular.
Leveraging the trends in global smartphone adoption rates, increasing smartphone computing power and faster mobile data speeds, the department decided to look inwards and engage its talented faculty and alumni to develop the application.
According to Jagdish Singh, Director, Marketing and Student Recruitment, the application will be used in all marketing activities by the university and its partners to build awareness and preference for Swinburne and Kuching.
“XR may sound new but it has been around for a number of years. Whilst we have always had the capability to produce the content, our decision was to wait until other trends merge to provide the right environment for adoption of this technology. Smartphones today can rival computers and with the technology available in a mid-tier smartphone, we feel the time is right for this application”, he said.
Commenting on the demand for graduates from the university’s multimedia design program, Jagdish said: “When you look at applications like Snap which calls itself a camera company and with the launch of its Spectales in addition to companies like Valve, Oculus, Unity, Google and Nvidia working together to establish a cross-platform standard via OpenXR, it’s a positive sign towards the demand for graduates with these skills.
Our industry partners are already at our doors asking for more graduates as there is a shortage of these skills for industries like movies & entertainment, gaming, technology and creative content production agencies.
Kuching VR was developed by Trifold Enterprise, a company set up by a group of young Sarawakians who graduated from Swinburne’s multimedia design programme. Trifold Enterprise is the first extended reality (XR) company in Sarawak that works on VR, augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) creative content development.
In Kuching VR, one of the landmarks featured is the Swinburne Sarawak campus.
“Users of the application can download Kuching VR onto their Android smartphones and explore Swinburne Sarawak in an immersive way. They will be able to view many different parts of the university to get an idea of what the campus is like. This enhances students’ on-campus and educational experiences even before they step foot into the Swinburne Sarawak campus,” added Jagdish Singh.
Professor Wilson also said that the VR could help promote Kuching as a desirable tourist destination with the Kuching Waterfront, TopSpot and Damai Central being featured in the application. He opined that VR has become increasingly popular and effective in providing tourists with a preview and understanding of what to expect from the place they intend to visit.
Also present at the launch were heads of department from various federal and state government agencies, industry partners, and the Board of Directors Swinburne Sarawak. Also present were the heads of schools of the university as well as students of Swinburne Sarawak.