Save the Polar Bears:
an AR Display
about the project...
In the Spring of 2022 I had the exciting opportunity to take an Immersive Media Design Course at my university. In this course, I worked on a team of 3 to create this unique AR experience.
We wanted to create an AR experience to draw attention to an important social issue. We decided to focus on the effects climate change has on polar bear populations. Climate change has led to the melting of polar ice caps which serve as a habitat to polar bears. As a result, polar bears are nearing extinction. The purpose of this work is to inspire viewers to take action against climate change. Since climate change continues to be a growing concern, we wanted to capture the attention of viewers by making our poster come to life with AR technology.
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We created an application that uses image recognition to display an AR scene. The viewer can use a tablet to scan the poster and view a 360 degree arctic scene. Families of polar bears can be seen on melting ice. An arrangement of stunning fish and fauna can also be viewed under the deep blue water.
the process:
1. brainstorming
To begin this project, my team and I brainstormed social issues that we were passionate about addressing. We came to the conclusion that climate change, specifically the effect it has on polar bears, is a pressing issue that we wanted to focus on. We decided to create an arctic landscape on Unity Engine. We created the following vision board after researching the issue...
2. creating the poster
Next, we decided to create a poster that acts as an image target to trigger the augmented reality scene. We wanted users to be able to scan the poster using a tablet so they could view an arctic scene. We used Adobe Photoshop to edit images of polar bears and ice caps. Then, we used Adobe Illustrator to design the poster, add text and combine the edited images.
3. adding assets to our Unity Engine workspace
We used 2D sprites from photographs of polar bears, glaciers, fish, etc. to build a 3D environment in Unity Engine
4. adding image recognition and
presenting our work
We used image recognition to situate our project at the University of Maryland, College Park's Brendan Iribe Center. We used a Samsung Galaxy tablet to prototype our final project.
Lastly, we wrote this proposal to urge inspired viewers to support initiatives to protect polar bears