Brian McMurray - Interactive Mobile (and) Web Developer

The Shedd Aquarium owns its own research ship which it takes every year to the Caribbean to collect fish for the Caribbean Reef exhibit back in Chicago. Shedd wanted to allow visitors to the aquarium to learn more about their research ship, the Coral Reef II. Shedd shot a number of videos both in and out of the water in HD and had a large library of high resolution photography relating to the ship.

The Iona Group helped Shedd turn these assets into an interactive exploration of the CRII. As the most experienced in the development software chosen for the task, I took the lead in developing the interactive piece to play back these high-definition videos and display these high-resolution photos.

Building upon the metaphor of a ship's blueprints, it is easy to navigate to each area of the ship and see listings of informative videos and personal interviews with the ship's crew, as well as to access photos of each part of the ship. Photos can be zoomed in all the way to their native resolution, allowing very detailed exploration of the ship.

The piece is prominently displayed next to the Caribbean Reef aquarium in the main atrium at the Shedd.