Biosphere > Alien Invasion

Invasion at the Thames Barrier staged in Aero
AR invasion at the Thames Barrier
Blender 3D model making
3D model with custom UV applied
3D model with custom UV applied
3D model with custom UV applied
Artist edition crab, 3D model
Artist edition crab, 3D model
Artist edition crab, 3D model
AR Artist edition crab on location
AR Artist edition crab on location
UI panel showing changing seasonal information according to animal life cycle
Designs for UI panels
Dataset of UK species distribution
AR setup for data visualisation concept
AR setup in Aero for scene at Tower Bridge
AR testing at Tower Bridge
AR setup in Aero for scene at South Bank
AR testing at South Bank (Hungerford Bridge)
ARrrr, it's huge!

Submission Categories

Sustainability
Travel & Local Discovery

Inspiration

Biodiversity strengthens resilience for sustainability. 'Invasive alien species' are non-native plants and animals introduced into an environment by human activities with negative consequences. According to the United Nations' Invasive Alien Species Report, non-native species played a major part in 60% of all extinctions and cost the global economy more than US$423 billion per year. Despite many people being nature lovers, it's a huge issue that can feel removed from our every day lives. What if a global augmented reality tool can help to expand our limited perception for macro systems that are way bigger than our own existence?

This project imagines AR used in 3 ways:

As a narrative tool to engage. AR scenes are built at 2 types of locations: ones that give added meaning to a narrative, like the Thames Barrier; and places that have high leisure visitor traffic, like the South Bank. In the Biosphere app, visitors can unlock and collect these experiences by visiting specific locations.
As an art and business initiative to generate funds to invest back into nature. A recent research on ~6000 companies found that majority of the biodiversity initiatives undertaken by businesses are related to donations and communication. The CowParade is an international public art initiative that pays artists to paint cow sculptures, places around cities, and had raised millions for charities. What if we create an artist edition AR sculpture of invasive species, with sponsorship from businesses?
As a data visualisation tool to inform. In a standard species distribution map, each pin shows where an animal was found. Reimagined in AR and placed where you're standing, what if map layers become fragments above ourselves, visualising layers of a biosphere?

What it does

Wildlife Take Over

AR scenes were built with Aero at 2 types of locations: ones that give added meaning to a narrative (like the Thames Barrier, symbolising invasion of the river and its banks); and destinations with high traffic from leisure visitors (like the South Bank).

Scenes intended to be viewed from river bank or on a boat.
Audio: helicopter sound effect; with news reporter style narration for Thames Barrier AR.
Target audience: citizen scientists and nature enthusiasts.

Biosphere app

Viewers can access an AR experience via a local QR code, or tap on links in the Biosphere app.

'AR Collection' tab: collect your AR experiences, unlock an AR scene by visiting specific locations
'New Sighting' tab: report an invasive species sighting, contribute to scientific research and data modelling (chinese mitten crab location reports are currently actively sought by institutions such as the Natural History Museum (London) and the Smithsonian).
'My sightings' tab: View all sightings recorded by you.
'Map' tab: Discover local species populations (see a map of all sightings reported to the Species Atlas database)
'Invasive species directory' (side menu): find information on species identification, any local legal requirements on handling invasive species

Artist Edition AR Public Art

Artist decorated AR 'Art Crabs', created with Aero, are placed at cultural destinations with QR code.

Target audience: people interested in art and culture

Data visualisation / AR map marker

In this case, I used Aero as a concept visualisation tool (missing skillset on the team to build it).

How we built it

Research topic and concept development. Learn how to build 3D models. Made creative assets. Researched locations. Build scenes in Aero. Acquired data as a starting point to develop the app. (Data source credit: NBN Atlas occurrence download at https://nbnatlas.org accessed on 15 November 2023. Data provided by: Environment Agency (Open Government License), National Trust and Geological Records Centre (CC0), Marine Biological Association and Biological Research Centre (CC-BY), Nottinghamshire Biological (CC-BY))

Challenges we ran into

Anchoring AR objects to a large area of water!
Proper testing can only be done at location, makes iteration inefficient
Testing sucked up a lot of mobile bandwidth
Both artistic and technical understanding are necessary to strike a balance between creating a rich AR experience (e.g. quality and quantity of creative assets used), whilst minimizing bandwidth to deliver that experience (staying within Aero's max recommended file size).
And because this use case is species-specific identification in a scientific context, scientific and biological understanding of what makes a species unique is important. For example, the crab's 3D design has to strike a balance between specificity (what's unique about this crab versus any other crab?) and artistic interpretation (which aspects can be leveraged to spark a viewer's creativity and imagination, without significant compromise to the overarching scientific value?). The 3D model of the animal cannot be a faithful reproduction of its form, because the file size would be too big – at the exclusion of other assets towards the overall AR experience.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Worked with AR for the first time.
Brought together a tricky balance of artistic, technical, and scientific know-how in the overall project concept and realisation.
Built my first 3D models from scratch (crab, Big Ben at 1:1 scale), with 2D graphics (UV) to cover them. Learnt some very basic skills in Blender on YouTube.