14 DAY TRIAL // The Oculus Rift augmented reality headset may not have become a game changer on the gaming market, but it has proven quite useful in many other fields. Virtual reality simulators are the ones benefiting the most.
One example of such a simulator has just been introduced by researchers from the University of Zurich and the Design and Research Institute IDE.
Called Birdly, it basically allows you to experience the sensation of flight. Bird flight. Or at least a very close facsimile, since you'll never be actually in the air. You'll have to go skydiving for that, or gliding, or practicing another of the sky sports known to man.
The Birdly is a platform on which you lie, face-down, while wearing an Oculus Rift.
The virtual reality headset will immerse you in a flight simulator, while the rest of the contraption will reproduce the movement of bird wings. There's even a fan that will simulate the wind, and smells are properly reproduced too.
Birdly is made for 8-year-old children and was developed over a period of one year.
You can see it at the exhibition SVS / BirdLife, where it aims to educate visitors on how birds live, while also providing them with some exhilaration, however fleeting.
The vista chosen for the simulator is the sky above San Francisco, but it shouldn't be a stretch for others to be added later.
