So far, only astronauts have been able to see our home planet from above.
But now, two UK-based companies have teamed up on a new project, SpaceTime Enterprises, that will give people the chance to see live views of Earth from space through a virtual reality headset.
Immersive content studio Rewind and space industry experts In-Space Missions plan to launch multiple satellites that will broadcast real-time immersive video of the entire Earth.
Using VR and AR technologies, consumers, scientists and others will be able to experience and utilise this unique perspective of Earth — free of the risks and prohibitive financial barriers of privately funded space travel.
“Our goal is to present consumers and businesses with an experience that goes way beyond a view from space,” explained Sol Rogers, CEO of Rewind. “By bringing live, world-class imagery to cutting-edge VR and AR headsets, we’re going to give the world a gift — the ability to go on a journey and experience space in a way that has never been possible in the past without hopping on a rocket. In addition, through bleeding-edge ground-processing, we will also be using the collected data to create the most current gigapixel map of the Earth’s surface.”
While VR and AR experiences will vary in different platforms and applications, SpaceTime will also feature the ability to overlay information in the users’ view about the planet, meteorological systems, atmospheric phenomena and more.
“Imagine being able to look down on the planet in VR and having all of the information about what you’re seeing right there in front of your eyes, or teaching your children about the Earth’s weather whilst it hovers in real-time in the middle of your living room through AR,” said Doug Liddle, CEO of In-Space Missions.
SpaceTime is planned for launch in the second half of 2019.
Tags: Virtual reality, AR, Augmented Reality, Connected Consumer, connectivity, Next Gen Connectivity, VR
