Open Cut Mining Overview VR Experience

Virtual reality (VR) headsets enable the viewer to be immersed in learning material and to really feel like they are standing “on the ground” at a new location. This is a great way to perform a virtual tour of sites that are difficult to access, such as mine sites. A person on site can capture the footage and then people can “teleport” virtually into that footage from wherever they are. However, it is important to add context to where they are “teleporting” and how this fits into the virtual tour in order to avoid confusion.

This project involved the creation of a virtual tour to a mine site to explain the open cut mining method to students. This VR experience utilised a simplified schematic of the whole mining operation to allow users to see the relationship between key stages and use this as an interactive menu to teleport into viewing the mining process.

This guided virtual tour was created for the University of New South Wales and the Upper Hunter Mining Dialogue to educate students into open cut mining. Students are able to navigate the experience at their own pace and learn about the stages of the operation and their impacts through a narration at each location.

The virtual tour consisted of a series of 360^o videos and photos produced with a GoPro 360^o camera. For scenes shot on equipment, 2 Garmin Virb 360^o cameras were used to mount on the equipment, inside and outside of the cabin.

The 360^o footage structured into a VR experience for viewing within the Oculus Go VR headsets as the main method of deployment. It was also made available through a iPhone/iPad App and a Web viewing platform. Users would navigate to the destination scenes using the VR controller or selecting buttons on the virtual menu.