Myanmar's startups map past, shape future with virtual reality

Published August 23, 2017
Nyi Lin Seck (L) and other members of his team handle a drone carrying a 360?4K video camera before releasing it in flight  to document the crumbling 700-year-old walls of the ancient city of Bagan in central Myanmar.─AFP
Nyi Lin Seck (L) and other members of his team handle a drone carrying a 360?4K video camera before releasing it in flight to document the crumbling 700-year-old walls of the ancient city of Bagan in central Myanmar.─AFP

Gasps echo across the hall as the Myanmar school kids trial virtual reality goggles, marvelling at a device that allows some of Asia's poorest people to walk on the moon or dive beneath the waves.

“In Myanmar, we can't afford much to bring students to the real world experience,” beamed Hla Hla Win, a teacher and tech entrepreneur taking virtual reality into the classroom.

“If they're learning about animals we can't take them to the zoo... 99 per cent of parents don't have time, don't have money, don't have the means,” she added.

Two tourists watch as a drone carrying a 360?4K video camera flies low documenting the crumbling 700-year-old walls of the ancient city of Bagan.
Two tourists watch as a drone carrying a 360?4K video camera flies low documenting the crumbling 700-year-old walls of the ancient city of Bagan.

Few countries in the world have experienced such rapid discovery of technology than Myanmar which has leapfrogged from the analogue to the digital era in just a few years.

During the decades of outright junta rule, which ended in 2011, it was one of the world's most isolated nations, a place where a mobile phone sim card could cost up to $3,000.

For half a century its paranoid generals cut off the country, restricting sales of computers, heavily censoring the Internet and blocking access to foreign media reports.

Nyi Lin Seck (C) and another member of his team set a 360?4K video camera with which they are documenting the crumbling 700-year-old walls of the ancient city of Bagan.─AFP
Nyi Lin Seck (C) and another member of his team set a 360?4K video camera with which they are documenting the crumbling 700-year-old walls of the ancient city of Bagan.─AFP

But today phone towers are springing up around the country and almost 80pc of the population has access to the Internet through smartphones, according to telecoms giant Telenor.

Budding startups

Tech startups are emerging around the commercial capital Yangon, many seeking to improve the lives of rural people, most of whom still live without paved roads or electricity.

Nyi Lin Seck looks at his 360?4K video camera while documenting the crumbling 700-year-old walls of the ancient city of Bagan.─AFP
Nyi Lin Seck looks at his 360?4K video camera while documenting the crumbling 700-year-old walls of the ancient city of Bagan.─AFP

“The increase in activity from last year till now ─ new startups, more people determined to become entrepreneurs and working in the tech sector in general ─ is significant,” said Jes Kaliebe Peterson, CEO of community hub Phandeeyar.

Virtual reality is the latest advance to cause a stir, with a handful of entrepreneurs embracing tech for projects including preserving ancient temple sites to shaping young minds of the future.

A drone flies a 360? 4K video camera over the ancient city of Bagan as a team of virtual reality experts document the crumbling 700-year-old walls of the ancient city.─AFP
A drone flies a 360? 4K video camera over the ancient city of Bagan as a team of virtual reality experts document the crumbling 700-year-old walls of the ancient city.─AFP

The Phandeeyar incubator works with more than 140 startups. Among them Hla Hla Win's virtual reality social enterprise 360ed which is using affordable cardboard VR goggles attached to smartphones to break down barriers in Myanmar's classrooms.

She founded the non-profit last year after 17 years working in the woefully underfunded education system in a bid to bring learning to life.

“I see it as an empathy machine where we can teleport ourselves to another place right away,” she told AFP.

A drone carries a 360? 4K video camera lifts off the ground at the ancient city of Bagan as a team of virtual reality experts document the crumbling 700-year-old walls of the ancient city.─AFP
A drone carries a 360? 4K video camera lifts off the ground at the ancient city of Bagan as a team of virtual reality experts document the crumbling 700-year-old walls of the ancient city.─AFP

And it's not just school children who benefit from stepping into places they could only ever dream of visiting.

360ed has used virtual reality to help Myanmar teachers attend training courses in Japan and Finland and is working on setting up deals with schools in India, Pakistan, China and Bangladesh.

“With VR there's no divider, there's no distance,” Hla Hla Win said.

Mapping the past

While 360ed is thinking about the future, Nyi Lin Seck is obsessed with the past.

Some 600 kilometres north of Yangon, the budding tech entrepreneur and founder of 3xvivr Virtual Reality Production launches a large drone into the skies above Bagan, one of Myanmar's most famous tourist sites.

Nyi Lin Seck (R) speaks about virtual reality technology to curious people wanting to learn more about it during a one day open house at his office in Yangon.─AFP
Nyi Lin Seck (R) speaks about virtual reality technology to curious people wanting to learn more about it during a one day open house at his office in Yangon.─AFP

The drone, which carries a 360-camera, circles one of the many ninth-to-thirteenth century temples that dot the landscape of what was once a sprawling ancient city.

The data it records allows those with virtual reality headsets to explore the temples, their crumbling centuries-old walls so close it feels like you can touch them.

A former head of the local TV station, Nyi Lin Seck says he makes most of his money providing virtual reality footage for hotels and luxury apartments.

An editor cuts at a studio in Yangon some of the 360? 4K video footage that was recorded at the ancient city of Bagan of its crumbling 700-year-old buildings.─AFP
An editor cuts at a studio in Yangon some of the 360? 4K video footage that was recorded at the ancient city of Bagan of its crumbling 700-year-old buildings.─AFP

But after an earthquake damaged the Bagan site last year, he vowed to use the tech to preserve a digital replica of Myanmar's archaeological treasures.

“A lot of artworks on the pagodas collapsed and were lost. Using this technology, we can record up to 99 percent of the ancient art,” he says.

A man wears a VR goggles as he watches some of the 360? 4K video footage that a specialized company recorded at the ancient city of Bagan and its crumbling 700-year-old buildings, while visiting the office of Nyi Lin Seck during an open house visual event in Yangon.─AFP
A man wears a VR goggles as he watches some of the 360? 4K video footage that a specialized company recorded at the ancient city of Bagan and its crumbling 700-year-old buildings, while visiting the office of Nyi Lin Seck during an open house visual event in Yangon.─AFP

A woman wears a VR goggles as she watches some of the 360? 4K video footage that a specialized company recorded at the ancient city of Bagan and its crumbling 700-year-old buildings, while visiting the office of Nyi Lin Seck during an open house visual event in Yangon.─AFP
A woman wears a VR goggles as she watches some of the 360? 4K video footage that a specialized company recorded at the ancient city of Bagan and its crumbling 700-year-old buildings, while visiting the office of Nyi Lin Seck during an open house visual event in Yangon.─AFP

Nyi Lin Seck shows some of the 360?4K video camera footage he took of the crumbling 700-year-old walls of the ancient city of Bagan to women and children residing in a Buddhist monastery located nearby.─AFP
Nyi Lin Seck shows some of the 360?4K video camera footage he took of the crumbling 700-year-old walls of the ancient city of Bagan to women and children residing in a Buddhist monastery located nearby.─AFP

Nyi Lin Seck (R) and an assitant look for the best place to record with their 360?4K video camera while documenting the crumbling 700-year-old walls of the ancient city of Bagan.─AFP
Nyi Lin Seck (R) and an assitant look for the best place to record with their 360?4K video camera while documenting the crumbling 700-year-old walls of the ancient city of Bagan.─AFP

Nyi Lin Seck stands next to a 360?4K video camera as he documents the crumbling 700-year-old walls of the ancient city of Bagan.─AFP
Nyi Lin Seck stands next to a 360?4K video camera as he documents the crumbling 700-year-old walls of the ancient city of Bagan.─AFP

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