Cafesenciavr: diseño de un entorno de realidad virtual para la etapa de germinación de semillas de café

Abstract

Coffee cultivation represents one of the most important socioeconomic and cultural pillars of Colombia. However, this sector faces persistent challenges that limit its productivity and sustainability, particularly at the most critical and vulnerable stage: seed germination in nurseries. Problems such as the use of low-quality seeds, a lack of knowledge regarding optimal environmental conditions (humidity, temperature, oxygenation), insufficient practical training, and inadequate nursery infrastructure lead to high rates of poor seedlings or total germination failures. This situation generates significant economic losses, resource depletion, and threatens the competitiveness of the coffee value chain from its very foundation. This problem is exacerbated by a knowledge transfer gap. Technical training for new coffee growers and nursery managers often relies on traditional and empirical methods, with limited access to modern, practical, and scalable pedagogical tools. Given this need, an opportunity arises to leverage immersive technologies to transform agricultural learning. Therefore, this thesis proposes the development of Cafesencia VR, an educational virtual reality (VR) application whose main objective is to design a virtual reality environment that sequentially simulates the coffee seed germination process. The application guides the user, interactively and immersively, through the five fundamental stages of the process: 1) seed selection, 2) substrate preparation, 3) sowing, 4) nursery care (watering), and 5) germination and transplanting. Through technical validation scripts, the user receives immediate feedback, practicing critical procedures in a safe, controlled, and repeatable environment, without risk of losing real plant material. This document presents the methodology, development, and validation of this prototype. The research is based on a systematic literature review on VR in agriculture, is managed using the Scrum agile methodology, and is validated using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to evaluate its perceived usefulness and ease of use. The technical development was done in the Unity engine, using C# for programming the interactions, and it was deployed for VR devices as a meta quest. El presente documento se organiza de la siguiente manera: inicialmente, se profundiza en la problemática y la formulación del proyecto. luego, se definen los objetivos y la justificación. A continuación, se presenta el marco teórico sobre la germinación del café y la RV, seguido del marco metodológico. Posteriormente, se detallan los alcances, delimitaciones y factibilidad del proyecto. Los capítulos centrales describen el desarrollo del prototipo a través de dos sprints, incluyendo el modelado, la programación y las pruebas. finalmente, se presentan los resultados de la validación con usuarios, el manual de usuario, las conclusiones y las referencias bibliográficas