Life-saving vision wins design gold

UNSW's iCinema, a three-dimensional, 360-degree virtual reality cinema, which has opened up new possibilities in art, education and industry training, has won a top prize at the "Oscars" of international design, the International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA).

The iCinema Research Centre, together with industrial design consultants Tiller Design, took out a gold award in the IDEA competition, which is held annually by the Industrial Designers Society of America.

The Gold IDEA was awarded for the iCinema Advanced Safety Training Simulators (iCASTS) system, which is already in use teaching mine workers how to survive potentially life-threatening workplace hazards.

iCASTS creates virtual scenarios for training in a full-scale, immersive environment similar to a highly sophisticated computer game, with interactive controls for group or individual training. The training modules used in iCASTS were developed by UNSW's School of Mining Engineering.

A number of systems have been sold in a multi-million dollar commercialisation success for UNSW and are in use for safety training in the NSW coal mining industry.

The virtual reality training packages place miners in a series of simulated underground emergency drills, giving them first-hand experience in how to escape dangerous situations.

While industry applications have focused primarily on underground coal mining, the versatility of virtual reality training is attracting intense interest across the mining sector and in education and new forms of artistic creation.

iCinema Centre director, Professor Jeffrey Shaw, said the award was a great honour for the team, who had worked to develop a new technology "driven by a vision of its artistic, educational and practical use".

"Our research efforts are directed at developing new kinds of artistic experiences that can also inspire innovative industrial and commercial applications," Professor Shaw said.

Tiller Design director Robert Tiller said winning an IDEA was recognition at the highest levels.

"The IDEA competition is like the 'Oscars' of international design," he said.

iCinema is a joint venture of UNSW's College of Fine Arts, Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

Media contact: Peter Trute | 02 9385 1933 | p.trute@unsw.edu.au