Imagine swimming with the dolphins in the wide open sea, watching them up close, and learning first-hand why these creatures are truly as mesmerising as they are amazing!
Well, not all of us can do that. That is why the Dolphin Swim Club programme aims to bring the experience to our living room or neighbourhood swimming pool!
What is it?
The Dolphin Swim Club is a project launched by Dutch artist Marijke Sjollema and her husband, Benno Brada to help us experience the thrill of swimming with the dolphins from the comfort of our home, using a technology called Virtual Reality (VR).
VR technology uses headsets that look like goggles into which an interactive 3D film is projected. The film makes you feel like you are both mentally and physically present in that world.
As their first project, the couple launched normal VR headsets playing a film of dolphins in late 2015. Last month, they unveiled waterproof VR glasses, which allow people to drift around a pool watching bottle nose and spinner dolphins playing around them in virtual reality.
“In December 2015, in the crystal clear waters of the Red Sea, we were fortunate enough to successfully film the resident spinner and Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins. So now, through the 360°VR everyone can meet dolphins in their own home, the free oceans of the world,” says the project’s website.
The project is a collaboration of VR technicians, fund raisers, free divers, marine biologist experts, post-production technicians, a media specialist and last but not least, the dolphins themselves.
Medical benefit
Dolphins, being curious, sociable, and intelligent animals, are known to be helpful in physical therapies like motor and speech skill development. Today, there are several professional dolphin-assisted therapies known as DAT, but these usually involve dolphins in captivity. Dolphin Swim Club enables patients in therapy centres to gain the positive impact of swimming with the dolphins virtually.
Experts are also conducting research to study the positive impact that swimming with the dolphins can have on one’s mental health.
“Some 82% of our clients feel actually relaxed by seeing the films,” says the organisation’s policy advisor, Johan Elbers. He recalls how one young woman, who had long had trouble sleeping, now watches a VR film of the dolphins swimming at night, and falls quietly asleep.
Recycled headsets
The pool-safe VR goggles consist of a waterproof Samsung smartphone in a waterproof backing mounted on a special 3D-printed headset made of recycled plastics.
Dolphin Swim Club teamed up with the Seal Rescue Centre Pieterburen in The Netherlands to use ghost nets (discarded fishing nets, just floating or lying around) retrieved from the waters and beaches of Wadden Sea and recycle them into waterproof VR headsets.
The films were made during a 10-day shoot in December 2015 at the Red Sea, using free divers capable of holding their breath for up to five minutes.
The dry version headsets are being used in more than 150 universities, hospitals and community centres.
Inputs from AFP and thedolphinswimclub.com
