San Francisco/USA: New AR & VR Experiences at Aquarium of the Bay

Starting this month, visitors to San Francisco’s Aquarium of the Bay can try out the facility’s first Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) experiences to encounter sea animals in a virtual environment. Sponsored by Big Bus Tours, the “Ocean Adventure” AR attraction installed at the “Farallon Room” offers the two interactive films “Ocean Adventure” and “The Arctic Explorer”, both produced by London-based INDE BroadcastAR. On a six meter (20 feet) screen, guests can interact with projected images of whales, dolphins, polar bears and other sea creatures.

Furthermore, the new “Virtual Reality Micro Theater” – a transportable exhibition environment for VR experiences created by tech-specialists Andrew Bleiman and Travis Wu (Co-Founder of LumiereVR) especially for museums, zoos, planetariums and aquariums – features a virtual dive down to some 31 meters (100 feet) to discover the behavior of whales and dolphins in close (virtual) proximity. The related “The Click Effect” VR film produced by Sandy Smolan and James Nestor examines the “secret language” of these animals.

In addition to the new AR and VR experiences, Aquarium of the Bay is presenting the new “Ocan Pioneers” exhibition featuring busts of eleven personalities who contributed to the greater understanding of our oceans, among these Carl Brashear (U.S. Navy Diver), actor Lloyd Bridges and French scientist Jacques-Yves Cousteau. The exhibition is a loan from Google and the technology company Deep Ocean Exploration Research (DOER). (eap)