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Culture

Virtual reality and the museum experience

December 13, 2016

From digital dinosaurs to simulated time travel – more and more museums are discovering the benefits of virtual reality. The aim is to enhance visitors’ interactive experience and attract younger visitors.

https://p.dw.com/p/2UBxf
DW Shift - Virtual Reality erobert die Museen
Image: APTN

Virtual reality seems to offer endless possibilities. At Berlin's natural history museum, visitors can now watch the skeleton of a brachiosaurus come to life. They simply place their smartphone into a cardboard case and immediately they have a VR display set. The dinosaur project was developed in cooperation with US tech giant Google. Some 60 leading natural history museums and institutions have provided access to their collections on the Google Arts and Culture online platform. Frankfurt's Städel Museum for its part is offering a journey through time. Here, visitors need simply don a pair of VR goggles to see what the premises looked like 140 years ago. The gaming platform "Steam" has created an entire virtual museum where users can get right up close to all kinds of masterpieces - including Leonardo's "Mona Lisa" and Picasso's "Guernica".