Inspiration
Costa Rica is a global powerhouse in birdwatching ecotourism, yet much of that magic remains invisible to the untrained eye. We wanted to capture the awe of standing at a Costa Rican cloud forest/paramo viewpoint and translate it into a domestic setting. By leveraging Costa Rica’s leadership in sustainable tourism, AVRy serves as a bridge between technology and nature, proving that we can promote local biodiversity and global conservation right from our living rooms.
What it does
AVRy transforms your physical environment into an interactive raptor observation deck. Using Mixed Reality (MR), the app digitally "removes" your ceiling and one wall, replacing them with a high-fidelity Costa Rican jungle vista and an open blue sky. Users can:
Identify Silhouettes: Spot and track the distinct shapes of hawks, vultures, eagles, and kites both native and migratory to Costa Rica.
Interactive Learning: Use ray-casting to "ping" a bird and reveal its species name, migratory path, and unique anatomical features.
Contextual Storytelling: Access interactive data overlays that explain how these apex predators maintain the health of our local ecosystems.
How we built it
The experience will be built using Unity, specifically focusing on passthrough technology and spatial mapping. We implemented a "sky-masking" technique that identifies the ceiling and a primary wall to create the portal effect.
Visuals: 360 spatial video/photography for the environment and silhouette shaders to ensure birds are recognizable even at a distance.
Interactions: Developed a precise ray-casting system for selection, optimized for the Logitech MX Ink.
Challenges we ran into
Spatial Occlusion: Ensuring the "blue sky" portal felt depth-accurate and didn't jitter when the user moved around their furniture is a significant technical hurdle.
Silhouette Accuracy: Distinguishing between a Broad-winged Hawk and a Turkey Vulture at high "altitudes" in MR required meticulous attention to scale.
Environmental Blending: Balancing the brightness of the virtual Costa Rican sky with the user’s real-world lighting to maintain immersion without causing eye strain.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Successfully create a "wow" moment where the physical boundaries of a room disappear. Seeing a user look up at their own ceiling and see a soaring Ornate Hawk-Eagle instead of drywall is incredibly rewarding. Educational framework that makes complex ornithological data accessible to hobbyists and tourists alike.
What we learned
Users connect more deeply with conservation messages when they are presented through "discovery" rather than just reading a text block.
What's next for AVRy - COSTA RICA edition
The roadmap for AVRy involves expanding the "Cloud forest/Paramo Viewpoint" to include different bio-regions, such as the cloud forests of Monteverde or the coastal mangroves of Tortuguero. We will also exploring:
Real-time Weather Sync: Matching the in-app sky with current local weather data.
AI Integration: Allow users to identify birds in the real world through AI smart glasses and the Swarovski AX Visio.
Leading apps integration: Sync their learning to their birdwatching apps (Merlin Bird ID app collab)
Social Birding: Allowing multiple users in different locations to join the same "sky portal" to learn and spot birds together.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.