Exploring the flipsides of virtual reality

The School of Engineering’s Dr Ben Horan features on Deakin’s new content hub, this, talking about the possibilities and opportunities of virtual reality (VR) technology.

The topic is the focus of two Flipside articles on the hub: ‘Virtual reality: games’ and ‘Virtual reality: brains’. The idea of Flipside articles is to give readers different perspectives on a story.

Dr Horan is the Director of the VR Lab in Deakin’s Centre for Advanced Design in Engineering Training (CADET). He features in both articles, talking about developing VR technology, such as the Oculus Rift headset, taking VR into people’s homes, and also the use of VR technology in the areas of education and training.

One project featured in ‘Virtual reality: brains’ is a collaboration between Deakin's School of Engineering, School of Nursing and Midwifery and School of IT which has given birth to a new simulator for training the next generation of midwives.

"The simulator enables students in training to experience aspects of labour virtually," Dr Horan explains. "This project is a very exciting one which shows the potential of VR and the value of interdisciplinary research projects".

Find out more about VR in the Flipside articles ‘Virtual reality: games’ and ‘Virtual reality: brains’ on this.deakin.edu.au.

Find out more about CADET and studying Engineering at Deakin.

Find out more about Dr Ben Horan.