Tom Garrison
9/28/97
COM 309
The Virtual Whale Project
The North Pacific humpback whale, like most whales, used to be hunted for the various
resources that they could provide for humans. Although most whale hunting is a thing
of the past, the North Pacific humpback is one of the species that never grew back
in numbers. These whales have very low genetic diversity which causes them to be
susceptible to diseases and thus high mortality rates, especially among infants.
The Alaska-BC Whale foundation, can be found on the internet at: http://mendel.mbb.sfu.ca/berg/whale/abcwhale.html
This foundation conducts various types of research in an effort to save the humpback
whales. They specifically focus on the concerns which are outlined in the Humpback
Whale Recovery Plan, which was issued by the US National Marine Fisheries Service
in 1991.
In the Spring of 1996, a Computer Science professor at Simon Fraser University, taught
a Scientific Visualization course. He assigned three students to find a researcher
on campus who needed some scientific visualization done. The students, located a
professor in the Biology Department who was studying the feeding habits of humpback
whales. The boys took the job and began to work on the project. In the Winter of
1996, two more students made the Virtual Whale Project come true.
The reason that a virtual world is necessary for this research is due to the style
of feeding used by the humpback whale. These whales eat very small, fast fish.
In order to catch the fish the whales band together below the water in groups of
up to two dozen. Then the whales release air bubbles towards the surface, make loud trumpet
noises and flash their flippers at the school of fish. This process traps the school
in the bubbles and gathers them near the surface. Finally the whale makes his move
and shoots to the surface, mouth open, to consume his prey. This is all very fascinating,
but it cannot be viewed clearly because it happens below the surface of the water.
Underwater cameras cannot capture the procedures leading up to the eventual consumption because the bubbles distort the images.
The Biology Department at SFU is trying to figure out what goes on beneath the waves.
They use different research methods sonar, dive tags, and hydrophones to try to
understand what the whales are doing. The Virtual Whale Project can be found at:
http://fas.sfu.ca/cs/research/projects/Whales/
One of the goals of the project is to give a 3D graphical display of the information
collected by the biology students. However, the main goal is to create an education
and conservation tool that also celebrates the humpback whale. Having the graphical
display allows a researcher to study the timing and the 3D motions of the whales, prey,
bubbles and sound underwater. In the computer field, the project can be used to
help show complex 3D relationships and their motions.
The original project was done in C++, and used a pair of Virtual-IO glasses, complete
with a head tracker and stereo headphones. In the program your boat approaches a
group of humpbacks and you dive into the water. You see bubbles at the surface and
dive underwater. There you can see the whales feeding on little schools of fish. From
this preliminary version, the Virtual Whale Project has much more planned. Currently,
the whole program is being transferred to VRML and Java formats. The preliminary
VRML world can be found at:
http://fas.sfu.ca/cs/research/projects/Whales/whales/
whale.wrl
The Biology Department is conducting research on fish schooling behaviors of the prey.
They then hope to incorporate this data into the virtual environment to add even
more realism. Research is also being done on the dynamics and acoustics of bubbles
which again will improve the reality of the simulation.
The final long term goal of the project is to apply the visualization technique to
other areas of humpback research. This is where the Alaska-British Columbia Whale
Foundation comes into play. They are interested in using the Virtual Whale Project
for some of their research. They hope that by being able to virtually see all of a whale's
activities they will be able to conduct new research that will help their conservation
efforts. This application is still in it's very early stages, but it has already
been recognized by many people as a useful application of virtual reality. The Virtual
Whale Project received national recognition in both Canada and the United States
and has won a few awards in the field of Marine Biology. The Virtual Whale Project
is an excellent example of a real life application used to understand what cannot easily
be seen through the use of a virtual environment.