Projects

Mountain Safety Education Virtual Reality Project

The Mountain Safety Education Virtual Reality Project is researching ways to use virtual reality in mountaineering education, to improve the safety of mountaineers.

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Chile & Aotearoa New Zealand

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Mountain Safety Education Virtual Reality Project website

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The Mountain Safety Education Virtual Reality Project is exploring how virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality could be used in high-altitude mountain-safety education, to improve mountaineers’ and emergency service officers’ learning and decision making in authentic or ‘real world’ high-risk situations.

Despite experienced mountaineers knowing the risks of climbing at high altitudes, each year there are several fatal accidents. These occur when climbers underestimate the environment or make poor decisions in high-risk, complex situations. This project, which forms part of Jin Hong’s PhD, is developing a prototype mountain-safety VR experience scenario, using data from mountain climbers in Chile and New Zealand.

As part of developing the project, in 2019 Jin and his supervisor Dr Claudio Aguayo presented the concept at the Chilean Tourism Research Society Conference; conducted a workshop with high-altitude climbers in Puerto Natales; and collected data at Grey Glacier in Torres del Paine National Park, Patagonia. In 2023, during an internship at Universidad Andrés Bello’s ecotourism school, Jin collected data from Chilean mountain climbers who were trying out the VR prototype he has developed.

Before this project ends in 2024, Jin is working with academic and non-academic communities to determine how the findings can be used to develop practical products or services that will enhance mountaineering safety. He is also looking at how the learning can be used in other contexts, such as volcano tourism safety in Chile.

This project is being funded by Auckland University of Technology App Lab and Prime Minister’s Scholarships for Asia and Latin America.

Published 02 November 2023