Wevr’s theBlu featured at Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo.
Fresh off of a successful collaboration with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, Wevr is taking its award-winning immersive experience, theBlu, across the globe to the Dubai Underwater Aquarium & Zoo in an effort to bring awareness and a new type of educational platform to conservation efforts around the world.
Made possible by Emaar Entertainment, the VRZOO attraction allows you to experience the CGI generated underwater imagery of theBlu as well as live action 360-degree footage from different countries around the world, including Uganda, South Africa, Maldives, Egypt, Australia and Mafia Island, all of which are home to some of the world’s most riveting, exotic wildlife.
While the attraction promises a fun, entertaining experience for guests, it does so with the intention of making them think critically about the futures of the wildlife and habitats that they are interacting with. Home to the world’s first artificial insemination program for Sand Tiger Sharks, the Dubai Aquarium and Underwater Zoo considers educating the public about conservation a top priority.
The VRZOO collaboration with Wevr is their latest effort to combine innovative technology with conservation education in a fun, spectacular way. Guests come face to face with African Elephants, Dugongs, and other endangered species in ways that would simply be impossible in the wild via HTC Vive headsets. Despite the fun, visually stimulating experience that VRZOO offers, the underlying message is a bit grimmer. “All the species showcased could be lost forever in the near future without intervention,” said Paul Hamilton, General Manager & Curator, Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo. “It is frightening to think that in our lifetime, some of these species may become extinct and only live on in VR for future generations.”
VRZOO isn’t the first conservation effort by Emaar, the Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo, or Wevr, and it surely won’t be the last. Emaar’s Discovery Channel Shark Week Exhibition at the Zoo, featured an interactive digital shark tank with 80 meters of transparent LG LED screening, interactive robot sharks, and the Shark Feeding Encounter helped raise the bar for educational entertainment and made Dubai a proud host to one of the most technologically advanced aquariums in the world. Los Angeles-based Wevr has already taken huge strides with its room scale immersive experience theBlu, but following the installations in the NHMLA and Dubai, the company has no plans of slowing down any time soon, with many more efforts to combine VR experiences with educational venues in the works for 2017.
Visitors to the Zoo can experience the 360-degree exhibit for AED 30, and the CGI theBlu experience for AED 50. Those interested in the thrills of VRZOO without the time or money for an adventure to Dubai need not fret; the theBlu experience will go live at the NHMLA on March 6th. You can also download it on Steam VR as well.
