The Envisioning Corals experience: technical development

Our VR (Virtual Reality) application aims to raise awareness of the impact of human pollution in a hardly accessible environment, particularly coral reefs. During the experience, the user will embody one of three different inhabitants of this environment: a coral, a hermit crab, or a sea turtle, each with different characteristics and tasks. In the meantime, the user will live the bleaching of the environment along 60 years, from 1960 to 2020, showing the effects of the water temperature increase over the underwater life. At the end of the experience, we will explain with a short message how we could save reefs with more awareness by users, and restore their original beauty.

We tried to develop our application as accessible as possible. We provided a preliminary virtual room where participants could follow a tutorial and master the interactions with the controllers before accessing the reef. We relied on the audio format for the educational content, written subtitles, and an intuitive graphical user interface. We also developed a functional embodiment strategy, an original way for participants to really feel like an inhabitant of the reef. Users could interact with the Virtual Environment by “touching” the digital objects with the respective animal’s hands. Our solution will guarantee a simple and interactive experience that could involve a wide range of age and expertise on the topic, regardless of any previous experience with VR. 

We implemented the application on Unity3D 2021 using the Unity XR Interaction Toolkit and the Animation Rigging package. The application has been conceived as suitable for wired HMDs. We also followed best practices for a smooth User Experience coming from the technical and behavioral sciences side.