If you were of the generation to watch the Magic School Bus there’s no doubt it would have been an unforgettable experience to have if only it was real, and now groups of school children have the opportunity to travel to Mars on their school bus in the Lockheed Martin Mars Experience Bus.
The project is designed to give children an insight into what space travel would be like with real time augmented reality (AR) synced bus. Using Unreal Engine 4, the students are transported to the surface of Mars to see what it looks like and about its environments such as weather patters, and the bus made its first run at the 2016 USA Science and Engineering Festival.
Alexander Rea, creative director on the Lockheed Mars Experience Bus from Framestore and advertising agency McCann, said in a press release: “We created the first immersive group VR experience in a school bus that drives in the real world and the virtual world – a 100% synced, real-time, 4K, custom-built Mars,” He goes on to say “The real school bus controls the virtual bus in Unreal Engine 4. As the diesel engine bus turns in the real world, its digital form turns within UE4. On Mars.”
For more news and updates in the world of AR and virtual reality (VR) stay with VRFocus.
