https://roundme.com/embed/718583/2263436
View of St Andrews from the Fife Coastal Path at Maiden Rock 
The beginning of the Fife Coastal Path from East Sands Beach
Introduction To Our Project
The Fife Coastal Path is one of Scotland’s Great Trails, stretching for 117 miles from the Firth of Forth in the south to the Firth of Tay in the north, alongside the North sea. The entire trail ranges in difficulty from easy and flat, to wild and steep, providing challenges and exhilaration for every kind of walker. You can marvel at the rugged beauty of Scotland’s east coast, while passing through fishing villages and former coal mining towns, and walking along cliff-tops, award-winning beaches and estuaries.
This natural heritage is not only visually magnificent, but also home to a vast fauna and flora. This is further discussed in the information hotspots included in the virtual tour above. This digital tour is a prototype and only gives a taste of the final project we are aiming to create. The purpose of our final project is to help educate people not only on this incredible ecosystem, but also on the climatic threats it is exposed to and what these will mean for its future. We hope that our initiative will support the preservation of this natural heritage.
We are scaling our last proposed digital development, which was an immersive virtual environment (IVE) of Antarctica. This brought users closer to the remote ecosystem by allowing them to virtually experience the natural heritage from the perspective of an Antarctic animal. The IVE also displayed visually the future impacts of climate change on Antarctica.
Although incredibly crucial for the health of our planet, Antarctica is still in a very remote location, inaccessible to most people. We believe that it could be even more impactful to create the Fife Coastal Path VR Experience, as this environment has already been seen first-hand by many, and is more reachable to you. Join us!
The Fife Coastal Path VR Experience
The Digital Development
By only putting on the VR headset, you will be transported into the immersive virtual environment of the Scottish Coasts located in Fife. With the hand controls, you will be able to walk the Fife Coastal Path and look around to admire the scenery, as shown in the Roundme virtual tour. An audio recording and pop-up information on the screen will guide you through your journey, helping you learn just how amazing this natural heritage is. The expedition begins at East Sands Beach. Here is a video that also suggests how you will be able to explore the virtual environment:
You will have the option to either experience the immersive virtual environment as yourself, or as an animal character that belongs to the Fife Coastal Path ecosystem. These could be grey seals, dolphins, rabbits, black-headed gulls and so on. The purpose of this is to help you connect better with this environment, and learn about its incredible fauna. The IVE will also include educational game-like tasks depending on the animal character. For example, hunting a particular amount of fish as a grey seal, or flying from one point to another as a gull.
Analysing the Future Climate
Arguably the most important part of this virtual experience is the ‘Analyse Future Climate’ feature, which was also developed in our previous project regarding Antarctica. You will be able to select a point in the future where the simulation will transport you. Based on leading scientific research regarding the effects of climate change on the UK and on the North Sea, you will be able to clearly visualise how this will impact the Scottish coasts.
The audio guide, alongside information that will pop-up on the screen, will share important facts regarding our climate emergency. For example, you will get to learn and see how the sea levels and wildlife have changed, how the flora is expected to decay in the future, and many more aspects that are otherwise hard to fully grasp. You will be able to further select a continuous future climate analysis, which will visually display a fast-forwarded changing environment at a particular speed – for example, 10 years per second, illustrating the modifications in the Fife Coastal Path produced by climate change.
Our Team
To bring this ambition to life, we are working with leading experts such as SeaLegacy, Sólfar Studios, and the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS). SeaLegacy are experts in leveraging technology to raise awareness and educate people on diverse natural heritages. Sólfar Studios are VR specialists who built the hyperrealistic Everest VR simulation, Everest VR: The Seeker Expedition. SAMS is one of Europe’s leading marine science and climate research organisations, and is Scotland’s largest and oldest independent marine science organisation.
Where You Will Find Us
Hopefully, you will soon be able to find our VR application in many British museums, starting with the Glasgow Science Center and Tate Modern London. We will also release our project on the Oculus platform to bring the magnificent Fife Coastal Path to more of you!
