During summer 2019, Cabox Aspiring Geopark ramped up its Virtual Reality (VR) program started in 2017 under the EU-funded Drifting Apart project. After acquiring its own 360° VR camera (with 6 lenses) in 2018, Cabox filmed 8 additional sets of hotspot scenes to compliment the 9 hotspots it filmed in 2017 for the GeoVR program, which in 2019 was stationed at Saltbox Restaurant and Geopark Information Center in Benoit’s Cove. The GeoVR program requires the use of a VR headset such as Oculus Rift to view hotspots in 3D virtual reality, creating a realistic effect similar to viewing the sights in person.

However in addition to 3D VR, the 3D images created by a VR camera enables the creation of WebVR virtual tours, in which 360° images can be posted to a blog or website where viewers can scroll across them in any direction and link to other scenes or hotspots by clicking on arrows or camera icons. During winter 2020, Cabox created its own WebVR page to provide viewers with a unique opportunity to virtually tour key Cabox viewpoints before actually visiting the sites in person.

In addition to scrolling around a scene and linking to other scenes and hotspots, viewers can zoom in and out and open the scene to view full screen.

Occasional links to other web pages or websites provide additional information or promotional opportunities.

At the bottom of each WebVR page is a topographical map showing the location of viewpoints for the various hotspot scenes

as well as an interactive and downloadable gps track with elevations for the trail leading to the particular viewpoints.

To view the full selection of Cabox WebVR virtual tours, go to https://caboxgeopark.org/virtual-tours/ … and stay tuned for more!