North Shore Oceanographer Looks To Build Augmented Reality Submarine

NORTH SHORE, MA – Oakland, CA, is on the water. But when Patrick Flanagan – an oceanographer and North Shore transplant – went to speak to an Oakland High School class, he asked who had been to the beach. No one raised their hand.

"I started to realize that a lot of people don’t have any access to the ocean," said Flanagan. "That was a formative experience for me." Students don't always have a way to get to the beach, or someone to take them.

Now, Flanagan is working to build a traveling laboratory to bring ocean exploration to the classroom. Or rather, parked outside the classroom.

OLLIE – Ocean Learning Lab and Immersive Experiences – is a project of Ocean Alliance, a 501(c)3 organization based in Gloucester. They're working on a trailer that looks like a submarine, with a 360 degree view of the simulated "ocean" on the inside. The multi-sensory simulation will be created using 360 degree video from NOAA open-source data, and footage the OLLIE crew gathers themselves. Flanagan, OLLIE's founder and director, said they're also looking to collaborate with other scientists' research projects.

"We could go to Mexico, Antarctica, or even our local Cashes Ledge, and while we’re there, we'll use a lot of the modern tools that we use in oceanography to tell a story about the environment, how it’s changing, how it affects human lives, and how human lives affect it," said Flanagan.

Flanagan met someone at an InnoNorth networking event who suggested he connect with Ocean Alliance. They recently became an official project of Ocean Alliance, and just this week received their first major donation toward the project.

When the trailer is completed, Flanagan and the OLLIE team plan to travel to North Shore classrooms and events to give everyone a chance to explore ocean depths, "without getting your feet wet." Flanagan and his fiancée chose to move to the North Shore because it boasts features that the two former Mainers both sought: Natural beauty and a community atmosphere, with proximity to the city.

OLLIE's team is aiming to have the trailer up and running by the school year of 2018, and work on smaller products to bring to schools before then. In addition to going to schools, Flanagan said the traveling lab could be set up during community events to take people on virtual expeditions.

"That experience of being in a real place, in what feels like a submarine, and guided by a oceanographer, creates a really transformative and exciting learning experience," he said. "One of the founding principals of this project is really about collaboration and bringing people together. If people are interested in what we’re doing and our mission, they should definitely head to our website and check it out."

Click here to learn more about OLLIE.

Images via OLLIE