“3D Under the Sea” selected as finalist in national video competition

Image courtesy of John Burns.

A three-minute video produced by a team from the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology and the University of California, San Diego has been selected as one of nine finalists in the Ocean 180 Video Challenge, a video competition calling for video abstracts that not only summarize recently published research findings but also highlight their relevance and real-world implications.

“Far too often science is conducted in a bubble and researchers put little effort into engaging with general audiences,” explained 2016 finalist John Burns, a PhD candidate in Ruth Gates’ laboratory at Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology. “Developing media products for middle school students is a great way to educate them on scientific issues and also show that while scientific research is a lot of work, it is a fun and exciting career that allows you to make new discoveries about the world we live in.”

Explore the reef by moving your mouse or smartphone

“The video we created uses immersive 360-degree virtual reality. We filmed with a 360-panoramic GoPro set-up to let you virtually explore these environments and our efforts to protect and save these precious ecosystems,” the team said in their video submission.

Users can access the YouTube to interactively view the video. The YouTube player allows viewers to use their mouse to scroll and look in any direction, or watch on a smartphone and pan through the scene by simply moving the phone.

Read more about it at Kaunānā.