ZOOHHH! A project that allows children in the hospital to interact virtually with animals to reduce the impact of hospitalization.

• The project provides an interactive and educational experience with a holographic screen that emulates a nature viewpoint equipped in the Sahel savannah.
• ZOOHHH! seeks to bring the Barcelona Zoo closer to hospital patients, reduce the impact of hospitalization and, at the same time, contribute to the digitalization of hospital environments.
• It has been promoted by Mobile World Capital Barcelona, Zoo de Barcelona, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona, Vodafone, and Fundació “la Caixa”, with the collaboration of the Department of the Vice-Presidency and Digital Policies and Territory and Fundació El Somni dels Nens.

18 February, 2022

See how a lion roars and launches a paw when approaching our hand, how a giraffe detects and moves its head in our presence, an elephant tries to greet us with its trunk or a turtle shakes its head following our hand. All this will be possible thanks to ¡ZOOHHH!, a pilot project with 5G and holographic technology that was presented this morning at the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu in Barcelona. This project aims to bring some of the animals of the Barcelona Zoo to children in the hospital, improve their mood and reduce the impact of hospitalization. In addition, it is an educational tool that allows them to learn the characteristics of both the animals and their habitat.

Promoted by Mobile World Capital Barcelona (MWCapital), together with the Barcelona Zoo, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona, Vodafone, and “la Caixa” Foundation, the project also has the collaboration of the Department of the Vice-Presidency and Digital Policies and Territory and Fundació El Somni dels Nens. The participation of institutions, companies, and organizations from different sectors makes it possible to contribute from different areas to the digitization of hospital environments and the health sector.

The Secretary for Digital Policies of the Generalitat, David Ferrer, who participated in the presentation of the project, pointed out that “projects like this one give full meaning to the Government’s commitment to digitalization as a generator of opportunities not only in the economic sphere but above all in the social sphere and people’s well-being. Bringing the zoo to hospitalized children with a playful and educational holographic experience like this shows the benefits of digitization in hospital environments and the impact of advanced technologies such as 5G in the health sector, where in addition to allowing remote operations, connected ambulances and telecare, among others, helps to alleviate the effects of hospitalization and thus have an impact on the better overall health of patients”.

ZOOHHH! consists of a cabin that emulates a nature viewpoint equipped with a 32-inch 8K Looking Glass holographic screen that, with Vodafone’s 5G connectivity deployed in the facilities of the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, allows an interactive experience with wildlife from a geographical area of the world. The volumetric and stereoscopic 3D technology of the company Aumenta Solutions makes it possible to interact with the digital models of these animals that, thanks to a Leap Motion sensor system, follow and react to the user’s hand.

Eduard Martin, CIO and Director of Smart Connectivity at MWCapital, explained that “projects like this bring enriching experiences such as going to the zoo and discovering and interacting with animals in the most realistic way possible to children being treated in the hospital. With ¡ZOOHHH! We reaffirm our desire to contribute to the digitalization of the healthcare sector, which is benefiting from the arrival of emerging technologies”.

The 3D images with audiovisual reinforcement have been obtained from photographs taken at the Barcelona Zoo, where the animals live, and the scientific supervision of all the contents has been carried out by their biologists. The main characters in this pilot project are a lion, a giraffe, an elephant, and a tortoise from the Sahel.

Awareness-raising –along with conservation and research– is one of the basic pillars of modern zoos, committed to the preservation of wildlife and natural habitats. In its new model approved in 2019, the Barcelona Zoo places special emphasis on the need to get out of its space and get its message in favor of the protection of biodiversity to the maximum number of people through revealing experiences that excite and move to action and reconnection with nature.

This is how the third deputy mayor and president of the Zoo, Laia Bonet, put it: “This project is an example of the Barcelona Zoo’s desire to move towards a new model, more open to society, which transcends the care and conservation of animal species and emphasizes raising awareness among children. It is also a magnificent example of how we can use new technologies to serve those who need them most, using them as an extension of the senses or producing innovative experiences.”

On the other hand, the Zoo has always strived to get closer to citizens in vulnerable situations, especially children, and regularly offers its collaboration to hospitals and various institutions, such as the Hospital de Sant Joan de Déu, the “la Caixa” Foundation, and the Fundació El Somni dels Nens. Participation in the ZOOHHH! the project allows the institution to unite these two vocations by incorporating the essential technological factor. The real equivalents of the virtual animals of this project, from the Zoo’s Sahel Discovery Center, act as ambassadors of this bioregion that is also in a vulnerable situation and with which the Zoo has a strong bond through various conservation projects.

The booth will be installed during the first phase in the outdoor space of the Itaka building of the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital. In the second phase, ZOOHHH! will be moved to the Pediatric Cancer Center that the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital itself will inaugurate in a few months.

Projects like ZOOHHH! are possible thanks to the bandwidth enabled by 5G technology. This allows the physical world to be represented with greater fidelity to the digital world, generating new types of interactions with enormous cultural, educational, and service potential. Diego Presa, Territorial Director of Vodafone in Catalonia and Aragon, commented that “this project demonstrates the enormous power of 5G technology to realize projects and ideas that were unimaginable a few years ago. The high speed and low latency provided by 5G is essential for a seamless experience”.

This project joins other initiatives such as Hack the Hospital, a hackathon organized between Hospital Sant Joan de Déu and Boston Children’s Hospital with the aim of designing new innovative solutions to improve the stay of children and adolescents in hospitals. “All these initiatives are of great value because they are allowing us to learn about all the potential that new technologies can offer our patients, not only from a playful point of view as in the case of ¡ZOOHHH! but also from a healthcare point of view, as in the case of the use of 5G for the remote monitoring and care of a child,” says the director of Innovation at the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona, Jaume Pérez Payarols.