Google Arts & Culture app lets you view ancient creatures in AR
The Cambropachycope is going to haunt my dreams.
Google has spent years developing 3D models that you can view and manipulate in the real world using smartphone-based AR. Tigers, velociraptors, Iron Man and even Childish Gambino — I’ve enjoyed summoning them all from the comfort of my living room. A Cambropachycope, though? Thanks but no thanks. Google’s latest AR offering is an ancient crustacean with a large black eye covered in tiny lenses. It’s a fascinating piece of history that just so happens to be absolutely terrifying, too — especially when it’s sat on your desk or coffee table, staring at you like an abandoned design from Aliens or Prometheus.
If you’re a scaredy-cat like me, you might appreciate some of the other animals that Google has prepared in partnership with Moscow’s State Darwin Museum and London’s Natural History Museum. These include the Aegirocassis, a sea creature that lived 480 million years ago, a reef-dwelling spotted trunkfish, and a digital recreation of the whale skeleton that is currently suspended from the ceiling of the Natural History Museum’s Hintze Hall. All of these are available to view through the Google Arts & Culture app, an encyclopaedic piece of software that also offers art galleries, cave paintings and the Apollo 11 Command Module in AR.
