Flare VR | 1D, 2D, 3D– Go!
Awards & Nominations
Flare VR has received the following awards and nominations. Way to go!
The Challenge | 1D, 2D, 3D– Go!
VR On Orbit
An immersive virtual reality experience targeted at elementary school students to educate about earth science satellite missions. This app uses a standard smartphone and the low-cost Google Cardboard VR viewer.
For this 3D data visualization challenge, I made a virtual reality app designed for the low-cost Google Cardboard viewer. There is fabulous earth imagery made available by NASA, and this immersive experience – designed for school students – puts this content in a compelling context. By visiting the mission control room and even following a satellite in low earth orbit, it makes for a high value educational experience, in which you can learn about the crucial role earth observation satellites play. I created an immersive educational experience to give some context to the pictures, in the framework of learning about the satellite which captured them. I hope that this app can be a tool to engage elementary school students in space and earth science. My favorite sequence is when you follow the satellite in orbit, which brings the famous “overview effect” to your living room.
The main challenge in developing this solution was to account for the limited graphics processing power of a smartphone, compared with desktop VR environments. In several cases I had to sacrifice high-fidelity textures to achieve an acceptable frame rate.
I made use of the 3D models provided here.
SpaceApps is a NASA incubator innovation program.