GE Tour to ocean floor uses Oculus Rift.

Bron;www.inavateonthenet.net

GE is using Oculus Rift to take visitors to its research centre in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil down to the seabed. The American corporation has developed a 3D virtual tour of a subsea robotic factory that it believes will one day replace manned floating platforms in the oil and gas industry. The company says that energy companies are already planning to place entire industrial oil and gas processing plants on the seabed. Researchers at GE’s Rio centre are already exploring these opportunities.

Using Oculus Rift, the tour begins in a pilot’s seat of a Nautilus 1 submersible vessel, which travels more than 1.5km beneath the ocean’s surface.

Katrina Craigwell, head of global digital programming as GE, said: “The Oculus Rift experience provided an opportunity for us to take viewers into otherworldly territory that we wouldn’t normally be able to visit.

“Traveling a mile down to the bottom of the ocean off the coast of Brazil, the experience highlights the extreme environment that subsea technology must withstand, and a vision for how a subsea factory will work in the future.”