A small revolution took place on Saturday, December 23, 2017, at the Museum of Natural History in Paris: the opening of Cabinet VR, the first permanent Virtual Reality cabinet in a French museum. The illustrious institution puts a new hoof into modernity with this totally digital installation allowing, in 15 minutes, to discover and explore the "Living".
High technology enters the museum
Located on the 3rd floor of the Grande Galerie de l'Evolution, the five posts are equipped with the latest HTC Vibe headset model and two controllers each. Several mediators are also present to guide participants and help when needed. A sixth post is available to survive any hardware problems.
The raw wood frame, very well thought out, with seat and storage allows everyone to evolve in a personal space of about ten square meters. Light curtains separate the different parts of the room. The colors, materials and light give the place a warm atmosphere conducive to immersion.
An immersive experience
From substance to form, there is only one step. Once the glasses are put on and the controllers are well in hand, the experience begins after a detailed introduction. Three choices are available to the explorer: a quiz on the "kinship" of species, far from always obvious, the exploration of the tree of life, bringing together all the plant and animal representatives from LUCA (Last Universal Common Ancestor) dating from 3.5 billion years ago. Since LUCA, life has continued to evolve according to the need to adapt to the environment. Plants and animals have thus been able to develop a whole range of characteristics that today make it possible to classify them into major orders of life. The last possibility is to explore and manipulate animals from the 3D gallery. Animals are represented in real size and the least we can say is that it is sometimes very surprising. It is possible to rotate them but also to make them grow or shrink, or to discover surprising anecdotes.
If VR is becoming more and more democratic, it is most often through video games or artistic experimentation. Here, it is really the mediation aspect that is used.
Over time, other experiences related to the museum's current events will be proposed. For hygienic reasons, all helmets and controllers are cleaned after use.
To access the VR Cabinet, it is imperative to book no later than the day before the desired date by internet or phone. An additional cost of 5€ is applied to the price of the entrance ticket, which is very interesting compared to other places offering VR in Paris. The VR Cabinet is open on Wednesdays and weekends as well as every day (except Tuesday) during school periods.
