Visions Of Nature: A Mixed Reality Experience At London’s Natural History Museum

Part of the cultural fabric of London, the Natural History Museum opened its doors for the first time in 1881. I have fond memories of my parents taking me there as a young child and then doing so a few years ago with my children.

As it approaches its 150^th birthday, if any institution should understand the need for evolution, it’s this one: so no surprise that for its latest experience, called Visions of Nature, it has adopted cutting-edge technology in the form of a mixed reality headset.

A three-way project between The Natural History Museum, Microsoft, and French augmented reality studio Saola, in Visions of Nature, guests don a Microsoft Hololens 2 headset to see what life might be like for the creatures and the environment in 100 years.

As the experience starts a large wild cat walks past and a tall tree appears in the corridor in front of you. As you listen to the narration, you then move into a side room, where you can get up close with various creatures: some that exist today and others that are imagined products of a future ecosystem.

For example, you see a whale float by that is the result of a Narwal and Beluga whales mating, two species that today would normally not be able to interact but might do so in the future due to the melting ice caps.

While events such as these are the consequence of manmade activity and are not ideal, the narration doesn’t browbeat the audience but instead focuses on the potential positive outcomes – a new species emerging.

What’s different about the experience is that compared to a more conventional approach such as a film with 3D graphics, the mixed reality brings of greater level of immersiveness and interactivity.

Here you are encouraged to get up close and examine a cuttlefish, hold out your hand to a Darwin frog, and free a large crab trapped in plastic and then see it scuttle away. With all of these, you can move close and examine the creatures in detail as you move around them.

That said, the technical limitations of the Hololens 2 did show up. While the models are detailed, for me they were a touch drab and mainly green and white. However, while I do suffer from red/orange color blindness, towards the end some fish were floating displaying glorious colors, so I don’t believe it was me. Also, the narrow letterbox field of view of the Hololens 2 did reduce the immersiveness if the headset wasn’t angled quite right, with the augmented reality images disappearing temporarily.

However, once adjustments are made I still very much enjoyed it and was impressed with what development company Saola has achieved. As its head producer Florent Gilard explained, the challenges were many, including synchronizing the animations with the lighting in the physical space and also synchronizing the multiple audio streams for individual visitors.

Towards the end of the experience, the wild cat once again appears, and you follow it out of the side room back into the corridor—it’s genuinely cool to see these creatures at the same time as people walking around in the same space.

If you are planning to visit the Natural History Museum then, Visions of Nature does enough to justify the cost of a £9.95 ticket.

As Kevin Wright, Head of Commercial Projects at Natural History Museum explained at the launch event, rather than just making visitors feel bad, the project aimed to empower and educate individuals to take constructive actions towards sustainability and it will leave you thinking about the environment more tangibly and positively.