While 2020 was a catastrophic year overall, it did serve one positive purpose, and that was to push the world further into the digital age. In fact, the digital enhancement and transformation efforts were accelerated in every industry sector in order to upkeep the delivery of quality services to customers.
Two areas that have seen an especially wide-ranging burst of creativity and innovation in growing virtual platforms were the entertainment and educational sectors. A recently launched Re-imagining of Dinosaurs AR experience by National Geographic was one distinct example of this type of transformative innovation.
Unveiling Re-imagining Dinosaurs
In their October 2020 issues, National Geographic included a fascinating feature named Re-imagining Dinosaurs. The feature illustrated recent discoveries about dinosaurs and displayed how modern technology was able to reconstruct the ancient creatures. Using today’s advanced tools, we have a whole new perception of what dinosaurs looked like. In many cases, these hardly resemble the dinosaur imagery we saw when we were school kids.
But the stunning discoveries were not limited to the National Geographic issue feature, as they opted to utilize the power of augmented reality to bring the reconstructed versions of Earth’s former masters to life. To deliver this content, National Geographic used the power of social media, making the augmented reality presentation available with the use of Instagram’s Spark augmented reality platform.
The unveiling of the AR experience aptly titled “Rediscovering Dinosaurs” was delivered as three varying experiences. One presented the Yi qi gliding through people’s yards or across their ceilings. Another presented the swimming tactics and motion of the Spinosaurus in the ocean depths, allowing for an ability to study and find out more about these interesting creatures. Finally, the third experience presented the ability to watch a Deinonychus guard its eggs and watch them hatch. All experiences also promoted the additional ability to learn more about the dinosaurs with voice over guides, as well as text throughout the augmented reality presentations.
The learning and fun did not stop there, however. In the ‘selfie mode’ users got the ability to interact with the ancient animals by directly facing them, as well as controlling their mobility. As the users move their mouths and heads, the augmented illustrations of the dinosaurs do likewise. The platform even gives users the ability to record these interactions, then share them with the world through stories on the user’s Instagram accounts.
The goal, of course, is to engage users with an experience that is both fun and educational. The Rediscovering Dinosaurs experience can be accessed on Instagram by opening the app’s camera features, navigating to ‘Browse Effects,” and swiping right, then searching for either Spinosauras, Yi qi, or Deinonychus. (The preceding links can be accessed directly by users with mobile devices).
More AR Experiences To Come
2020 had totaled three AR experiences of this type, with the dinosaur virtual experience being the latest, and The World in 2070, and the Everest Climb rounding out the other two. There is no doubt that we can fully expect to see more interactive and immersive augmented reality experiences coming in the future in order to inject a ton of fun and excitement into learning about our world’s past, present, and future.