Spain: Metapark Zoo – Augmented Reality Zoo Comes to Life Near Barcelona this Summer

In the Montnegre i el Corredor landscape park, located less than an hour’s drive east of the Catalan capital Barcelona, a new kind of Augmented Reality (AR) experience, Metapark Zoo, is to become available this summer, which will make it possible to observe and marvel at exotic animal species virtually through AR technology. For this purpose, guests will be given AR glasses that they will wear during their (real) walk through part of the grounds of the landscape park. Thanks to the image overlap of virtual animal creatures with the real environment, they will be able to enjoy a similar experience as in a classical zoo. In this way, interesting information about different animal species can be conveyed without presenting living specimens of the respective species in artificial living environments, according to the project-developing company Metaofix from Barcelona.

After “Metapark Zoo” as the first AR experience in the landscape park, other thematic contents such as dinosaur worlds or magic forests are planned to be realized there. About half a million euros will be invested in the project, which will be developed in several phases and supplemented by overnight accommodation and gastronomy. (eap)