Today I treated my nephew and his girlfriend to a day at the American Museum of Natural History. As always, the museum was awesome, but this time I was particularly struck by an exhibition about the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
There was a big screen where you could see and hear an animation of the T. Rex in its habitat. There were also many life sized casts of skeletons, as well as cool interactive exhibits where you could do things like create possible sounds for the roar of the mighty thunder lizard.
There was even a VR experience. But it was essentially just a puzzle game, where you could practice putting together the bones of the T. Rex skeleton.
I kept thinking that what this exhibition really needed was a room where we could all just slip on a VR headset and walk around freely together within a simulation of the upper Cretaceous Period, as though we were in the presence of an actual Tyrannosaurus Rex. In our lab we are developing the means to do just that sort of thing.
So it won’t be too long before you will be able to have that kind of experience in your own city or town. Coming soon, to a museum near you!
When I was walking around some historic castles, I was thinking it would be great if you could put a headset on and see what it would have been like hundreds of years ago.
I am not sure you would want to walk around the whole place (those spiral stairs could be dangerous with a headset/delay), but to be able to walk around a great hall or courtyard in its former glory should be achievable.
Yes! I am always thinking the same thing these days whenever I walk around within historic ruins. It’s a great opportunity!!!