THE HINDU, 30 June 2004 Bangalore
A 'virtual reality corner' at Visvesvaraya Museum
By Out Staff Reporter
Bangalore, June 30. Want to give Aishwarya Rai some dreadfully red locks or paste a "Veerappan-like" moustache on Hrithik Roshan? The newest gallery at the Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum (VITM) here gives you a chance to do just that.
The Hall of Electrons of Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) located on the third floor of the VITM lets you do virtual makeovers. It also helps you play volleyball with a robot and, with night vision glasses, lets you kick around a football even in total darkness.
Built in a record time of over seven months with Rs.1.5 crores from BEL (the VITM put in Rs. 50,000), the gallery displays many of BEL's own products - from a replica of the electronic voting machine (EVM) used in the recent elections to night vision glasses (sold mostly to the defence forces) and thermal imaging technology. At the gallery, the EVM's are for an "opinion poll," Students visiting the gallery can "vote" for the best exhibit on these EVM replicas. On Tuesday, most of the students, especially the boys, flocked to the "virtual reality" corner to play volleyball with a robot. Another crowded corner was the "digital corridor" where one could see their digitised images if they stood in front of a screen. Other exhibits included a section on barcoding technology (used most visibly in supermarkets); a depiction of the process of chip making; interactive semi-conductor models; a section on the promise and uses of nanotechnology and, last but not the least, a "live" telemedicine facility.
The facility has been set up by Televital based in Banashankari II Stage and its the result of a joint venture between the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Narayana Hridayalaya and the VITM.
After the Governor, T.N.Chaturvedi, inaugurated the gallery on Tuesday, he went around the place with the BEL Chairman and Managing Director, Y.Gopala Rao, the VITM Director, K.Vasudeva Bhatta, and the National Council of Science Museums Director-General I.K.Mukherjee.
The Televital people also demonstrated the use of the facility, "Patients here ca have their X-rays or ECGs scanned or examined at Narayana Hrydayalaya or any of the 60 hospitals involved in the ISRO telemedicine project," Mahesh Shetty, national customer support manager, Televital, said.
But, did the students like the exhibits? Priyanka, a class 10 student of NES School, Koramangala, and her classmate, Afreen, found the gallery interesting, Priyanka said they had an introduction to electronics in their syllabus, "So, yes. The gallery is quite useful," she added.
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