The premise of Jurassic Park is cool, don’t get us wrong. Yet at the same time I doubt we’d actually want to go there because, well… you’ve seen the movies, right? So the next best thing to get up close and personal with the scaly behemoths of the past is through the power of Augmented Reality, an iPhone, and Sir David Attenborough. We’d ideally prefer if Sir Richard Attenborough could reprise his dinosaur breeding role in Museum Alive but we’ll settle for his equally talented and special brother.
Available on iPhone now, Museum Alive is an AR experience that lets you plop a 3D diorama of a those magnificent lizards onto a flat surface and take a good ol’ look at them in their natural habitat. It’s a neat little app that asks you to find a flat surface, pinch the display so it bets fits with the scale of the furniture you’re using and then plays out the scene. The app currently features three exhibits, each one showing off a specific dinosaur just living it’s best life while Sir Attenborough tells you exactly what you’re seeing. It’s real neat! Once the animation begins playing you’ll be able to move you iPhone around to get a better look all around the little environment it’s rendered.
Attenborough-ing to the core
You might thinking that this all sounds rather familiar and you wouldn’t be questioned for your suspicions. The app is coming out as an extension of David Attenborough’s Natural History Museum Alive documentary and is aiming to replicate the cool animations no doubt present throughout the movie.
Unfortunately the Museum Alive app is only available to iPhone users through the App Store and features only three exhibits at the time of writing. According to The Verge, there’s a fourth exhibit expected in the future that will focus on the Dodo which is cool, but is it enough to really warrant spending $3 on? Sure, it’s not that expensive but there are plenty of other education apps available for that price with more content. Just check out our list we compiled last year of education apps if you’re in the market to keep your kids learning and busy.
