Step Inside Karnataka’s Past: Bengaluru Student Avani Rao Builds A Smartphone VR Museum

Avani Rao, a Class 12 student at The International School Bangalore (TISB), built VRView, a virtual reality museum of Karnataka history. She has piloted the museum with 300 middle school students at two NGO schools in Bengaluru and plans to take VRView to more classrooms in the coming weeks.

A museum visit asks a lot of a school. Teachers plan the trip, arrange transport and pay for entry. Each step costs time and money. Once inside, students walk past glass cases and read labels on the wall.

Avani set out to change the format. VRView moves the museum into a virtual space. Students enter through a phone, play games and earn artifacts from Karnataka's history. Each artifact comes with a description of the object.

How VRView Works

VRView runs on Cardboard VR, the low-cost, open-source virtual reality platform popularised by Google Cardboard. The platform turns an ordinary smartphone into a 3D headset. The phone splits the screen into two images, one for each eye, and tracks head movement to update the view.

Cardboard VR is the most affordable form of virtual reality. Standalone VR headsets need dedicated hardware. VRView runs on a smartphone paired with a controller.

Avani went beyond the basic platform. She added controller integration and wrote input statements, so users interact with the museum instead of only looking around. Visitors move through the space and act on what they see.

Three Games, Ten Artifacts

The museum holds 10 artifacts from history and three mini-games. Students play the games to reveal the artifacts. A description appears with each artifact and explains what the object is.

The design gives students a goal. Instead of reading every label in a room, they work toward each artifact through play. The games give students a reason to finish, and the descriptions add context to each object they earn.

VRView uses no generative AI. Avani built every element by hand, from the museum space to the games and the descriptions.

Pilots and Next Steps

Avani presented and piloted VRView with middle school students at two NGO schools in Bengaluru, with batches of almost 50, totaling 300 students. The first run was through the Links Charitable Trust. The second is New Age Nursery, Primary and High School in Marathahalli.

Students at both schools enjoyed the experience and played through the games. The pilots tested a low-cost VR museum in a classroom setting with younger students.

Avani has scheduled presentations at more schools in Whitefield and south Bengaluru in the coming weeks. She is also in touch with a Bengaluru art museum to showcase VRView there.

Why Low Cost Matters

VRView reverses the usual direction of a museum visit. The museum travels to the students instead of students travelling to the museum. A school needs a smartphone and a controller to run VRView.

Avani wants people to care about museums. VRView pairs an affordable platform with Karnataka's heritage to reach students outside museum walls. The project brings together programming, game design, history, and community outreach in one build.

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