Diving with a blue whale in a new experience of virtual reality

Visitors to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles can place themselves in different ocean environments and swim alongside a swarm of different marine creatures in the new virtual reality gallery.

 TheBLU is an underwater virtual reality experience inviting users to enter a new view. Where the user puts virtual reality headphones and glasses to discover a series of marine ecosystems. Using the portable control unit, the user can interact with migratory turtles and fish so that you can also swim with the 80-foot blue whale.

The National Museum of Natural History in Los Angeles (NHMLA) worked closely with designers from VR wevr to craft three loops within the space allocated for it. Not only to make the visitor feel as underwater as possible but to offer a series of stories about different ocean and wildlife environments.

Before entering a virtual tour, participants enter a museum area with real sea samples on the screen, providing a visual introduction to the experience. Lori Bettison, director of the Museum of Natural History, said in an e-mail that scuba divers had been hired to help design virtual reality interfaces to be as close to the truth as possible and to set the distinctive steps for divers to increase enjoyment.

In the first part of the tour, users on board a sunken ship will help them adjust their underwater world-wide optics and prepare themselves for the first round of the encounter with the Big Blue Whale.

The next part conveys users to a quiet journey between coral reefs to find yourself amid the migration of thousands of jellyfish.

Finally, in Part III, users descend into darker depths of the ocean alongside the remains of a dead whale and find the dark abyss inhabited by alien creatures.

Rowell explained that Theblu production of virtual reality content requires a lot of work to bring together many elements, including images, sound and interaction on all large and small scales, and allow people to carry the controls and make them feel their presence in the virtual world.

"The amazing thing about this experience is that you are facing a natural blue whale.

Rowell said that facing the Blue Whale face-to-face with a height of 80 feet can only happen if you're next to him in the ocean or in virtual reality.

Bettison said that in this stunning experiment she puts the islets in a background similar to the reality beneath the ocean, including the life of a marine in which objects resemble their natural size to a large extent.

She also said they hoped this would lead to questions about environmental pressures on the oceans, which would generate a greater sense of responsibility for the life of the subcontinent.

                                                           @abderrahiim