Immersive augmented reality devices combine virtual 3D content with the real world around us. The 27th edition of the Museum Connections show, which will be held on January 17 and 18 in Paris at Porte de Versailles, will be an opportunity to discover the latest achievements and innovations in the field of augmented reality.
By displaying virtual 3D content in a real environment, immersive augmented reality devices have radically changed our perception of the world and the understanding of its evolution. The use of mixed reality technologies in museums is attracting more and more visitors, as the 27th edition of the Museum Connections fair, which takes place on January 17 and 18 in Paris, will show us.
And watch out! Guaranteed wow effect, especially with the creations of the Saola studio, which developed Revivre in collaboration with the National Museum of Natural History. Through their mixed reality headsets, visitors witness the rebirths of the Mauritius dodo, the Steller's rhytina, better known as the sea cow, and the great auk of the waters of the North Atlantic. And many other extinct or threatened species will then wander in 3D alongside you in the galleries of the museum, explains Florent Gilard, co-founder of Saola Studio:
“At the Saola creation studio, we see ourselves first as storytellers and transmitters of information, even before being augmented reality technicians. The permanent installation Revivre, for example, which was created in collaboration with the National Museum of Natural History, allows you to rub shoulders with dodos, smilodons, these large extinct cats also called "saber teeth", but also the bird- elephant or the Tasmanian tiger.
With the help of scientists from the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, we modeled these animals that no longer exist to animate them in computer-generated images like an animated film and then put them back in the real and immediate environment of the animals. spectators equipped with mixed or augmented reality glasses. These very light helmets are also Hololens from Microsoft which allow you to see both your environment and animated images, which like holograms are embedded in your immediate landscape.
Visitors can wander through the gallery of threatened and extinct species. Virtually resuscitated animals surprise them throughout their journey. A voice in the headset tells you the story of these species and their interactions with humans. Your guide is a migratory pigeon that disappeared at the beginning of the 20th century, with silvery pink wings, who accompanies you from species to species. At the end of the course, the extinct animals that have been encountered gather around you one last time to greet you.
Just after Revivre, and on the same principle of production, we carried out another project for Nausicaá, the Boulogne-sur-Mer aquarium very committed to the preservation of the biodiversity of the seas and oceans, to tell the story of marine animals that cannot and above all must not live in captivity. And soon, we will launch in collaboration with a London museum in the United Kingdom a kind of virtual Jurassic Park, in order to discover how the dinosaurs lived before their disappearance. »
The conferences organized during the Museum Connections 2023 fair will have as main themes this year innovation and sustainable development. The debates will focus, for example, on the contribution of cultural institutions in the fight against the collapse of biodiversity, on the issue of the environmental footprint of tourists who visit a heritage site.
