Audiences all around the world are looking for high-quality immersive experiences more than ever before, especially as extended reality (XR) technology and applications continue to improve and expand. Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are increasingly being leveraged for entertainment and activations, but they can also be used to engage people around important causes such as nature conservation efforts.
This is precisely what Habitat XR aims to do — founder and CEO Ulricho Grech-Cumbo describes the company as an impact-led immersive experience studio that weaponizes immersive technologies for good. He and his team have worked on various XR projects for conservation nonprofits, government agencies, etc. around the world to bring people closer to nature and give them extraordinary experiences that they may not otherwise get to have.
Habitat XR’s latest project is a collection of XR immersive mountain gorilla experiences as part of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund’s new Ellen DeGeneres campus in Rwanda. The activities include a 360-degree theater showing films 25K resolution, VR kiosks where visitors can immerse themselves in gorilla behaviors, and an AR-powered gorilla trek.
The pandemic has increased the demand for these types of experiences across the board, which is a bit of a double-edged sword, especially when combined with supply chain issues. “We struggled to get started because VR headsets are flying off the shelves,” says Grech-Cumbo. However, this is a positive trend overall as it signals that more and more people are exploring and accepting this tech and the experiences that it can provide.
For the film experience in Rwanda, Habitat XR also had to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to create the best possible experience. “For the first time ever, we had a challenge where the resolution of the native footage actually filmed in the field was lower than where that footage was going to be needed,” explains Grech-Cumbo. “For videos that are going into headsets, for example, we often shoot in 6K or 8K and bring it down to 3 or 4K.
“In the case of the theater, we built it to be future proof. It’s 25K capable, but now we've got 8K resolution footage and we have to make it look good in the space. We started looking into the various early AI upscaling software that was out there and landed on one that really added a lot of value to the resolution. It wasn't just technically bigger — it added texture back into the video to compensate for the lack of the sensor quality. That’s now become a standard way we produce videos for these installations.”
Grech-Cumbo explains that each of the three technologies deployed in Rwanda serves a specific purpose. VR, he says, solves the cognitive gap problem by allowing people to truly experience something that they may have previously only imagined or seen in photos. However, some people still don’t like VR, and in addition, it can be an isolating experience when used in this context.
“There’s no social aspect to it,” he says, “and that’s what the theater solves. At the campus launch, we saw a huge group of schoolkids come through, and they were all dancing around when the music played in the film. It's absolutely incredible to see. Finally, the AR is interesting because it allows us total and utter control of certain behaviors that the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund wanted to show about gorillas.”
For the AR experience, Habitat XR created a 3D photorealistic model of a silverback gorilla, which is superimposed into the gardens of the campus through AR. This experience also enables audiences to see gorillas building nests, which happens after trekking tours end and which visitors aren’t usually able to see.
This is just one example of how immersive experiences such as the ones that Habitat XR creates can, in some ways, be even better than the real thing — for both people and the environment. Another advantage, Grech-Cumbo notes, is that it’s a lot cheaper. A mountain gorilla trek in Rwanda will run you $1500 per day, while these particular experiences are free.
Then, there’s the lack of damage to the natural environment, as well as total lack of danger to the audience. Lastly, when filming wildlife for 360-degree immersive films, the team is able to capture moments that wouldn’t be allowed to happen in real life.
“We will try and predict what is about to happen, drop the camera, and dive into some bushes,” says Grech-Cumbo. “And then the camera picks up all this action that we wouldn't be allowed to experience, such as a gorilla walking right up to you and sniffing your body. In real life, you'd have to back out of that situation, but in a VR headset, you get this profoundly intimate moment of being eye to eye with a mountain gorilla. We’ve found that these kind of intimate moments of delight really change the way people see themselves as a part of nature.”
While much of Habitat XR’s work is available to people who visit certain sites, they also have content available to anyone with an Oculus headset on Oculus TV, including their original documentaries “Africa’s Big Five” and “A Predicament of Pangolins.”
Up next, Habitat XR will be heading to Central Asia for a hologram installation in the desert as part of a rewilding initiative and will also be completing an underwater VR shoot in Mozambique focusing on manta ray conservation.
Grech-Cumbo emphasizes that although VR and AR are on the rise, he doesn’t believe that we’re headed for a Ready Player One world where all experiences take place in a digital environment.
“I think that people can use these kinds of digital experiences as a gateway into further personal exploration and adventure and forming a relationship with actual nature,” he says. “I think the world needs radical intervention, and we found out early on that these technologies have a profound effect on people that photos and regular videos just cannot have.”