Let your kids be creative while keeping them safe indoors
SERIES: WORK AND ENTERTAINMENT FROM HOME
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.
Places
For the United Nations's World Tourism Day 2020, Google partnered with the digital archivists at CyArk and the University of South Florida to bring 37 historical and cultural sites to Search. Just look up any of the below monuments on your phone and scroll down to the 3D model.
- Chunakhola Masjid (Bangladesh)
- Nime Dome Mosque (Bangladesh)
- Shait Gombuj Masjid (Bangladesh)
- Flanders Field Chapel (Belgium)
- Fort York National Historic Site (Canada)
- Normandy American Cemetery (France)
- Brandenburg Gate (Germany)
- Pirene fountain, Corinth (Greece)
- Temple of Apollo, Naxos (Greece)
- Gate of India (India)
- Throne room of Eshmun Temple (Lebanon)
- Altar of the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral (Mexico)
- Chacmool statue, Templo Mayor (Mexico)
- El Caracol (Mexico)
- El Castillo, Chichén Itzá (Mexico)
- Palacio de Bellas Artes (Mexico)
- Eim ya kyaung Temple, Bagan (Myanmar)
- The Meeting House, Waitangi Treaty Grounds (New Zealand)
- Church of Saint Sofia, Ohrid (North Macedonia)
- Buddha statues at Jaulian (Pakistan)
- Lanzón stele at Chavin de Huántar (Peru)
- Ritual Rooms in Palacio Tschudi, Chan Chan (Peru)
- Palacio Tschudi, Chan Chan (Peru)
- Moai, Ahu Nau Nau (Easter Island/Rapa Nui)
- Moai, Ahu Ature Huki (Easter Island/Rapa Nui)
- Moai, Rano Raraku (Easter Island/Rapa Nui)
- House of Saint Ananias (Syria)
- Lukang Longshan Temple (Taiwan)
- Great Mosque, Kilwa Kisiwani (Tanzania)
- Autthaya (Thailand)
- Wat Phra Si Sanphet (Thailand)
- Mausoleum of Emperor Tu Duc (Vietnam)
- Edinburgh Castle (U.K.)
- Lincoln Memorial (U.S.)
- Martin Luther King Memorial (U.S.)
- Mesa Verde (U.S.)
- NASA Apollo 1 Mission Memorial (U.S.)
- Thomas Jefferson Memorial (U.S.)
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.
