© 2024 WUTC
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Virtual Reality Game Demonstrates Conservation Success

Todd Stailey

The Tennessee Aquarium and Tennessee Tech University collaborated to put the skills of iCube to work creating a 3D educational game. 

The Oculus Rift Virtual Reality Conservation Game uses virtual reality goggles as the student interface to an underwater world.  Students can travel the waterway and see a realistic view of the plants and animals living in the Conasauga River.  Instructors can manipulate the simulation to introduce pollution and other environmental factors that challenge the students to seek solutions.  Once pollution is introduced into the stream the effect on the animals can be seen immediately as the reduced population reflects the limited sight in the polluted water.  The game shows the cause of pollutants in the river and students answer multiple choice questions to find solutions that can restore the ecosystem.  The virtual reality game will be used by the education outreach programs of Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute (TNACI).  A demonstration of the program in use can be found on youtube.

Rabbit has been on the air at WUTC since 1993.