Augmented Reality (AR) doesn’t really shock anyone, for that matter, particularly in museums. Visitors to museums will be pleasantly surprised and also intrigued to see how expertly augmented reality is being deployed in museums. Augmented Reality helps to make museums more engaging, more interesting, and ultimately more memorable for visitors’ experience.
Augmented Reality (AR) can be used on your smartphone, tablet, or wearable device. It brings you and your family more enjoyment and greater value for the museum ticket you bought. Shock and awe, as our title suggests, is probably for other areas, and we will not take you there. What we will present in this post are examples of AR museum experiences that are spectacular and awe-inspiring for folks of all ages.
Singapore is a modern-day wonder in itself. Its transformation from a third-world to a first-world country in the span of a generation is quite an incredible story. Would it be a surprise to know that it houses one of the world’s best AR exhibits? When you plan your next trip to Singapore, remember to include a visit to The National Museum of Singapore.
Among its many treasures is the wonderfully designed immersive exhibit called The Story of the Forest. The exhibit is a three-dimensional animation of natural history drawings. The exhibit enables visitors to personally interact with the exhibit using their smartphones, creating their own experience for as long as they wish with the exhibit. The beauty of the exhibition encompasses the visitor creating an immersive feeling of being in a forest.
This is a spectacle exhibit for young people and parents who find this exhibit a great way for kids to learn about nature. Using their phones, kids can identify, search and learn about various flora and fauna. This learning experience outside the classroom ensures greater retention and, more importantly, an appreciation of the world we live in.
Let’s fly from Singapore to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. It is one of the most spectacular museums in the world, with an extensive collection of the wonders of nature. The Bone Hall in this museum showcased for many generations the skeletons of animals that once were even extinct.
Augmented Reality technology has transformed the way people now view these bones. The Smithsonian now has the Skin and Bones exhibit, an AR experience centre where we have an expertly designed AR application that can be installed on your smartphone.
Through the app, which uses the phone’s camera, the visitor is able to see the flesh and skin overlaid on those skeletons and magically bring them to life. One exhibit shows a sea cow transforming itself from a collection of bones into a highly realistic and moving animal, while another shows a bat flying away.
Visitors are able to appreciate the underlying structure of bones and how they enable movement and stability with the muscles and tissue above it. Students develop a better understanding of anatomy and movement as well.
Such engaging, interactive and unforgettable exhibits are being created in museums around us as you read this. Museums are slowly being transformed into digital museums to make your museum experiences meaningful and more enjoyable.
Fusion VR is proud to say that it is contributing towards the overall effort by providing solutions and services for digital interactive museums and corporate experience centres by using our core expertise of augmented reality and virtual reality technologies in museums. We look forward to the day when AR in museums is widespread, accepted and enjoyed across the globe.
