Zoos nowadays commonly get a bad reputation for being a place that houses larger animals, who normally live in open areas and can travel several miles in a day, in small enclosures that limit their natural instincts. To tackle this issue, the American Zoo Association has begun to take a step back and reevaluate which animals should be included in zoos. Back in 2007, the Philadelphia Zoo decided to make the rather controversial decision to move their Elephants to a conservatory, rather than continuing to house them on the premises of the zoo itself, much to the chagrin of many daily zoo-goers.

Decisions like this are necessary in order to balance an animal’s well-being and happiness with showcasing a wildlife experience that many people would never be able to experience without a zoo. It is an extraordinary exercise in teaching empathy for animals that are thousands of miles away. As technology continues to improve and become more accessible, zoos are backtracking and trying to bring the experience of standing beside awe-inspiring animals back to the daily zoo-goer. New technology brings more realistic ways to implement animal exhibits that seem as if real animals are present, without sacrificing an animal’s well-being.

This project proposes to create an exhibit that includes an immersive experience that will bring elephants back into the heart of Philadelphia. The design includes an interactive application where families will be able to interact via virtual reality technology with elephant film and be able to choose their own educational experience. A herd of elephants will be presented to the viewer, meeting at a watering hole. From there, the herd will diverge to perform different activities, and patrons will be able to “follow” the elephants in order to learn more about their specific day to day activities and familial behavior. The display would ideally be made up of large LCD screens in order to provide maximum clarity for the viewer.The viewer would be able to interact with the exhibit with an infrared remote that includes a joystick and a trigger which will control prompts on the screen of the VR display, which is very similar to the technology that is readily available in Villanova University’s CAVE.

• Vizard 5.9 download link (64 bit)https://www.worldviz.com/releases/vizard5
• Vizard 5.9 Docs Onlinehttps://docs.worldviz.com/vizard/5.9/
• Nasa G.Projector used to create VR images from regular 2D images: https://www.giss.nasa.gov/tools/gprojector/