Kilo Hōkū VR

Kilo Hōkū VR is for educators and learners of Hawaiian wayfinding, or non-instrument ocean navigation, to utilize it along with their time in the classroom and experiences on a wa‘a kaulua. However, Kilo Hōkū can serve as an educational environment for anyone interested in learning about the Hōkūleʻa or wayfinding techniques.

The Hōkūleʻa is a traditionally designed double-hulled Polynesian voyaging canoe, also known as a waʻa kaulua.  Originally built on the island of Oʻahu in the state of Hawaiʻi in 1974, she was a key component of the Hawaiian Cultural Renaissance.   The original 1976 voyage of the Hōkūleʻa from Hawaii to Tahiti proved that original Hawaiian sailors and navigators did not randomly drift around the vast Pacific Ocean, but rather were active explorers and sailed with direction and purpose.  She has since sailed around the entire world, making her first world-wide voyage from 2014 to 2017.  More about the history of Hōkūleʻa can be learned at http://www.hokulea.com/vessels/hokulea/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C5%8Dk%C5%ABle%CA%BBa

The user will be exposed to the art of wayfinding through both immersion in the virtual environment and through visualizations that are commonly used to train navigators to recognize the movement of the night sky, such as the Hawaiian Star Compass. Through their experience, the user will be able to train their observation skills so that they will be able to understand their position in relation to the stars.

Kilo Hōkū VR requires a Steam Account, Steam VR, and the HTC Vive or Vive Pro to experience.  It has been shown to work on other VR headsets (Rift, Rift S, Index), but we are still in the process of testing on these platforms, so there may be bugs or controller mapping issues.

Additional materials and documentation are available at our website, https://kilohokuvr.com/ 

Kilo Hōkū is free to download!  If you would like to support our work, we also accept donations.  All donated funds will be used for continued development and maintenance of the project.