Journey Across Nautical Immersive Systems

This unique, educational and enlightening virtual reality experience features JANIS the whale, which users can travel through. As users navigate through the mixed reality course in the GRID Lab, they get the chance to physically interact with JANIS. In the mouth, users feel the sensation of the whale’s tongue, mouth walls, teeth, and even the uvula which is touch-sensitive. As users reach the stomach, they are met with trash to teach users the realities of pollution in the oceans. 

The team that has been working on the JANIS project consists of a group of diverse students studying in the McClure School: Sondra Boyle, Jada Ashmeade, Beth Brennen, Jolie Hansen, Aidan Neal, and Jessie Robinson. “Working with a team of diverse individuals changes how we work because there are not many opportunities in a tech field for a bunch of diverse people to get to work on something together,” says Robinson.  “Being a minority, you're always having to try to catch up to meet the men, and we don't have that disadvantage as a group.”