{"id":5405,"date":"2021-03-12T05:56:13","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T05:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/12\/big-cat-rescue-sinks-its-teeth-into-virtual-reality\/"},"modified":"2021-03-12T05:56:13","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T05:56:13","slug":"big-cat-rescue-sinks-its-teeth-into-virtual-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/12\/big-cat-rescue-sinks-its-teeth-into-virtual-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Cat Rescue sinks its teeth into virtual reality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?rct=j&#038;sa=t&#038;url=https:\/\/stpetecatalyst.com\/big-cat-rescue-sinks-its-teeth-into-virtual-reality\/&#038;ct=ga&#038;cd=CAIyHGQzYWQwNmI0YTFiYjA3MmU6Y28udWs6ZW46R0I&#038;usg=AFQjCNFo4VQVpvfPV0P2jV-TakMNwJf-hw\">Big Cat Rescue sinks its teeth into virtual reality<\/a><\/p>\n<p><p>While Joe Exotic, denied a pardon by former President Trump, languishes in prison, it\u2019s clear that Carole Baskin is moving on with her life.<\/p>\n<p>Baskin, the founder and CEO of Tampa-based Big Cat Rescue, whose intense, years-long feud with Exotic (legal name: Joseph Maldonado-Passage) was documented in <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.netflix.com\/title\/81115994\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness<\/em><\/a>, the Netflix series that captivated a locked-down world last year, made an appearance on Thursday at the Synapse Summit. The innovation conference normally takes place at Amalie Arena, but was held virtually this year because of the Covid-19 crisis.<\/p>\n<p>In a session titled \u201cBig Cat Rescue: Bringing Animal Conservation to Virtual Reality,\u201d Baskin, along with Doug Fajardo, the CEO of Xennial Digital, envisioned a future where people can interact with lions, tigers, panthers and other endangered species without the need for zoos and sanctuaries like hers.<\/p>\n<p>After greeting attendees with her catchphrase, \u201cHello all you cool cats and kittens,\u201d Baskin made the case for investing in virtual and augmented reality technology that could reduce the need for exotic animals to be held in captivity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy belief is that no big cat belongs in a cage,\u201d Baskin said. \u201cThey belong in the wild. And yet the one recurring theme that I hear from people is that we have to have zoos and people have to take their children to see these animals in cages or else they won\u2019t appreciate nature. And I think that our old way of doing things is teaching children the exact wrong message \u2014 that it\u2019s OK to hold others captive for our own amusement or education.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_41926\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" readability=\"32\"><noscript><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-41926\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-41926\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/techclot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/SstdPU.png?resize=274%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt width=\"274\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/techclot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/SstdPU.png 274w, https:\/\/techclot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/SstdPU.png 512w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 274px) 100vw, 274px\"><\/noscript><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-41926\" class=\"lazyload size-medium wp-image-41926\" data-src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/techclot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/SstdPU.png?resize=274%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt width=\"274\" height=\"300\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 274px) 100vw, 274px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/techclot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/SstdPU.png 274w, https:\/\/techclot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/SstdPU.png 512w\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 274px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 274\/300;\"><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-41926\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Joe Exotic is serving time in prison for attempting to have Carole Baskin murdered.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Baskin and Fajardo met at last year\u2019s Synapse Summit, which was held in person, before the coronavirus pandemic took hold in the United States. Their connection has yielded <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=aYQ1qxW_YP0\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Big Cat Rescue VR<\/a>, an application for the Oculus Rift headset that lets users immerse themselves in a forest where a tiger is on the loose and in danger of being abducted by poachers. At various spots throughout the forest, users can watch educational videos about tigers and other big cats.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur sanctuary is home to about 50 big cats, and we\u2019re on 67 acres in Tampa, but our vision is a world where all wild cats live free,\u201d Baskin said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s why this meeting is so important to me because Synapse has been such a great partner in helping us reach that next part of our vision.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Baskin said she first looked into creating a Big Cat Rescue VR experience in 2012 but the technology wasn\u2019t up to snuff at the time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne thing that had been done in virtual reality was a dinosaur,\u201d she said, recalling her initial forays into the field. \u201cAnd I thought, \u2018Well, you know, a dinosaur is pretty easy because you don\u2019t have fur, and you don\u2019t really know what they actually looked like, so you don\u2019t have to recreate it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fajardo said he has struck up a friendship with Baskin and is in touch with her on a weekly basis as they build out Big Cat Rescue VR for other platforms, including the lower-priced Oculus Quest. That version of the app should be available in two to three weeks, he said, adding that developing the program to Baskin\u2019s specifications has been one the most challenging \u2013 but also rewarding \u2013 experiences of his career.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe hadn\u2019t really don\u2019t anything around Carole\u2019s space where we were actually recreating an environment with animals,\u201d Fajardo said. \u201cAs Carole said, the hair, the movement of the animal and coming as close as you can to it in a natural way \u2014 that\u2019s very difficult to accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But accomplish it, they did. The experience is so immersive, in fact, that the user gets to not only learn how to track a tiger in its natural environment, but also use tools to rescue the animal from a poacher\u2019s trap.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou free it from that scenario and you become really engaged in what\u2019s going to happen to that tiger,\u201d Baskin said. \u201cThere\u2019s no way, in any other type of situation, other than really freeing a tiger in the wild from a snare, that you\u2019re ever going to feel like this is something that matters to you. And that\u2019s what I wanted, was for people to really feel like this matters.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Published at Thu, 11 Mar 2021 19:52:30 +0000<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Big Cat Rescue sinks its teeth into virtual reality While Joe Exotic, denied a pardon&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":5404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-augmented-virtual-reality"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/techclot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/SstdPU.png?fit=274%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3orZX-1pb","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}