Museum of Flight teams up with Microsoft for virtual reality tours of historic airplanes
,
,
It’s not easy to crawl through the guts of a World War II bomber, but a new virtual reality project from Microsoft and Seattle’s Museum of Flight turns it into a snap on a screen.
The Aviation Pavilion Virtual Tour is actually a series of VR tours, highlighting interior views of planes ranging from the B-17F Flying Fortress and the B-29 Superfortress to Boeing’s 737 and 747 jets.
“For the first time, visitors – both on site as well as remotely – will be able to ‘step inside’ the cockpits and interiors of these carefully preserved artifacts through high-fidelity 360-degree virtual tours,” the museum says.
There are clickable screen tours that were created from scans with the Matterport 3D Camera. The interface is similar to Google Street View: Click on the vantage point you want to get to, and you’re there. You can also use arrow keys to navigate, or zoom out to see the full floor plan or “dollhouse” in a cutaway display.
There’s also a score of 360-degree panoramas captured by photographer Lyle Jansma. You can twist and turn your vantage point on a computer screen – or set the imagery into VR mode, optimized for Homido goggles (which happen to be available at the Museum of Flight’s store).
,
Source: Geek Wire