CyArk Makes Dreams of Teleportation Come True with VR at SF's Exploratorium

by Elizabeth Lee
October 7, 2016

This week, CyArk made the dream of teleportation a reality for hundreds of people who attended the After Dark event at San Francisco’s Exploratorium Museum, one of the nation’s top ten science museums. In seconds, thanks to a series of virtual reality exhibits, CyArk teleported guests 7,000 miles to discover places like the Eim-ya-kyung Temple in Bagan, and the inaccessible fountains of Corinth, Greece.

As CyArk continues to venture into virtual reality (VR), they were honored to test some of their immersive VR content in order to educate guests and spark curiosity for the world around them.  CyArk was able to test the reaction and responses guests had to these sites in order to guide future educational experiences. A perfect collaboration with Exploratorium’s mission to promote the ongoing exploration of science, art and human perception.

Once teleported, guests were amazed by the quality and detail of these cultural sites. They could autonomously walk over ancient stones, weave through two-thousand-year-old columns, and admire the sheer scale of the architecture before them. Some would argue that technological advancements in virtual reality enabled this feat, and that is very true. However, without CyArk capturing the exclusive content of these heritage sites, people would have nowhere to be teleported.

It’s no surprise that scaling the faces of Mt Rushmore is strictly forbidden, however going there virtually is not. CyArk has made this possible thanks to their exclusive access and intricate digital data collection process. For over a decade, CyArk has captured and archived the highest quality assets of these heritage sites. CyArk knows that technology will be the primary tool to carry these often endangered sites into the future, and therefore has strived to capture assets that can be rendered for future forward technologies.

This event showed visitors new possibilities for exploring their world, and allowed CyArk to be inspired by user reactions. CyArk is grateful for the opportunity to work with the Exploratorium, and promises to find exciting ways to boost people’s curiosity of the world.