For DierenPark Amersfoort and the Jane Goodall Institute, we worked on a unique challenge: how do you tell the complex story of the tension between the habitat of chimpanzees and the needs of farmers in Central and West Africa—without moralizing, but in a captivating and playful way?
Chimpanzees need forests to move between food sources. Farmers, in turn, need fertile land to survive. How do you convey this story in a way that surprises, invites play, and encourages reflection?
Interactive AR (Augmented Reality) Sandbox
The result: an interactive AR (augmented reality) sandbox that responds to how children (and adults) manipulate the sand. By digging new paths, visitors create routes for the chimpanzees to move toward their food. But there’s a catch: if an area remains untouched for too long, farmers clear the forest and plant crops. This creates a constant tension—just like in real life.
Bringing the Chimpanzee Habitat to Life
The installation looks simple and intuitive to use, but under the hood, it features complex technology. Since no standard solution exists for an AR sandbox with height detection and blending between two projectors, we at MoMoLab developed custom software specifically for this project.
A depth sensor reads the height of the sand. We process this data to generate a virtual 3D version of the sandbox, where we animate the chimpanzees. Then, we “flatten” these visuals, capture them with two virtual cameras, and project them onto the sand! This way, sand piles transform into the mountains of West Africa.
A technical feat we are incredibly proud of.
The hardware for this installation was provided by DefineIT.