Virtual experience of what shark senses

Cape Town. 160425. Local design team creats a virtual reality shark experience. pic supplied

Cape Town. 160425. Local design team creats a virtual reality shark experience. pic supplied

Published Apr 27, 2016

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YOU can swim with the sharks, or be a shark, using the continent's first underwater virtual reality headset.

The exhibition at The Shark Education Centre in Kalk Bay is the brainchild of Save Our Seas and was created by technology company Formula D, who specialises in developing educational tools.

Users put on a shark head-shaped helmet to get a virtual experience of what it's like to be a shark.

The virtual experience was developed as an interactive experiential exhibit to inform visitors about sharks’ powerful senses of smell, hearing, sight and touch.

It took the team four months to develop the virtual exhibit.

Formula D managing director Marco Rosa said the centre asked them to come up with an innovative method of explaining the ways in which sharks use their senses to hunt for prey. “It was hoped that if the public could understand these creatures better, they would be more inclined to support shark conservation projects,” said Rosa.

The centre's manager, Eleanor Yeld Hutchings, said they are in the process of redesigning a room to facilitate the virtual mechanism.

“This virtual experience will show what amazing creatures sharks are and their role in the ocean. Sharks are the top predators in the sea. They are the ones who keep the ocean's ecosystem balanced and we are so dependent on the ocean,” said Hutchings.

Besides the virtual shark machine, which will be up and running later this year, the centre also has an aquarium, books and microscopes for people to learn more.

School groups can arrange visits with the centre at no cost, with lunch and transport for underprivileged schools.

Shark populations face the threat of extinction in every part of the world primarily due to overfishing driven by the high demand for shark fins.

Additional threats include bycatch (where sharks are killed when other seafood is being targeted), recreational fishing, the use of sharks for ingredients in cosmetics or health supplements.

The strategy of the Save our Seas Shark Education Centre is to teach young South Africans how amazing sharks really are.

Rosa said the virtual experience simulates a shark's feeling of swimming past rocks, plants and fish. “A speaker in the exhibit is used to create the sounds a shark hears underwater. The smells sharks experience is also created for the user through a fan in the exhibit,” said Rosa.

The person using the virtual mechanism gets to experience what the shark senses when he senses his prey.

Fish also give off a vibration sensed by sharks which users can experience.

Following voice-over prompts, they navigate their virtual shark avatar by moving the shark head either left or right. Meanwhile, the virtual prey, a tuna, tries to escape.

“It has been proven scientifically that engaging in education is a much more effective way of learning than to tell someone about it,” said Rosa.

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