EVER FELT LIKE the turn-by-turn navigation feature of GPS was good, but could do with a little something extra?

The Sunshine Aquarium in Tokyo, not content with simply giving directions,  have taken the service and added penguins to it.

Created as a response to a significant drop off in attendance over the last couple of years, the augmented reality (AR) app was built as a response to the problem, with potential visitors being guided to the facility by a team of penguins.

penguin navi penguin navi

The aquarium put the decreasing number of visitors down to the volume of distractions in Tokyo that made it harder for people to stumble across their facility.

In an attempt to make the penguins movements as accurate as possible, ten different cameras were used to motion capture the penguins in the aquarium. The penguins were then processed into CG and added to the app.

penguin navi penguin navi

Watch the full video here [MP4] >

The new app has resulted in a 152% increase in visitors to the aquarium. The app is available on iOS and Android as an accessory to the Junaio AR app. The app can be used in Ireland, although you don’t have much hope of making it to the aquarium.

However, you can still watch the penguins wobble about on screen.

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