Let your kids be creative while keeping them safe indoors
This story was originally published on Apr 1, 2020 and last updated 7 hours ago. ME
This article is part of our Work And Entertainment From Home series.
Even if stay-at-home orders are slowly lifting all around the globe, we're mostly supposed to stay inside to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. But that shouldn't stop us from exploring things we'd normally see in museums or shops thanks to 3D models available in Google Search on Android and iOS. We've already covered which animals and pets you can lure into your home, but if you and your kids get tired of acting as an amateur zoologist, there is a whole world to explore, starting with planets and space crafts courtesy of NASA over anatomy all the way to shopping for shoes, and most recently, chemistry models.
Look for the "View in 3D" button in search results, then "View in your space," et voilà — Pluto in your house.
To get started with AR objects, all you need is reasonably modern phone or tablet running Android 7.0 or higher — Google has a list of all supported devices that includes handsets from Google, Nokia, Huawei, Motorola, Oppo, Samsung, and Xiaomi. You can then simply search for the terms listed here and should see a result that says "View in 3D." Adding "3D" to your search might make that show up further at the top.
If you want to learn how AR works (and explain it to your kid), be sure to check out our previous coverage.
Space
Google and NASA teamed up to bring a vast collection of celestial bodies into your home, starting with good ol' planets and moons, but also some more outlandish objects such as asteroids like Ceres and Vesta. You can find the AR versions of most of these by just searching for their names and scrolling down until you find a result from NASA's website that gives you the option to "View in 3D." Appending the names with "3d" in search might help you find that result faster.
Planets, moons, celestial bodies
Spacecrafts, satellites, and more
- 70-meter Antenna
- Apollo 11 command module
- Cassini
- Curiosity
- Delta II
- GRACE-FO
- Juno
- Neil Armstrong's spacesuit
- SMAP
- Spirit
- Voyager 1
There are a few prominent absentees, among them the ISS, but don't fret — you can still see the space station in your living room. Just download NASA's Spacecraft AR app, which has some additional models not available on Google Search. It's based on the same AR technology Google uses, too.
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