Shark Week unleashes sharks in your living room with Discovery VR
Henner Herwig Jürgens is the Managing Director and Cofounder of VAST MEDIA, a media research and consulting company based in Berlin that provides international television industry leaders with qualitative competitive market analysis of digital entertainment and content marketing.
Shark Week on Discovery
Discovery Channel's long-running summer event "Shark Week" returned yesterday with a variety of new content and exclusive virtual and augmented reality experiences. The augmented reality experience 'Shark N' Awe' within the Discovery VR app allows users to immerse themselves in the world of the sharks, learn about them, and play games. The experience consists of 'Virtual Air Jaws', 'Swim with Sharks' and the 'Shark Frenzy 360 Game'. All of the segments have been created in cooperation with augmented reality platform AIREAL.
By accessing 'Virtual Air Jaws' about half of the room is set underwater and users can move their mobile phone to look around. If users click on the play button, a white shark breaches out of the water. The animation can also be paused to look at it from different perspectives. Users can also take pictures of the scenes and apply "Shark Week"-themed filters. The pictures can be shared across various social media outlets.
'Swim with Sharks', allows users to choose between four different scenarios. Then the whole room is set underwater and different shark species cross the screen. By tapping on a shark, users get a detailed description, general data, and fun facts about the shark.
The 'Shark Frenzy 360 Game' is an extension of 'Swim with Sharks'. Players are attacked by sharks and have to tap on them to tame them before they are getting too close. The compass in the lower right screen displays aggressive sharks in red. After players have been attacked by three sharks, they loose and can share their high score across social media.
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