News

Museum of Aviation gets its Google on

  • Published
  • By Angela Woolen
  • Robins Public Affairs
ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  The Museum of Aviation is going virtual - on Google, that is.

Using technology designed by NASA for the space station, Francesco Kozerski from Global Web Advisors spent two full days documenting the inside and outside of each building.

"We're doing this project on a completely voluntary basis," he said.

Kozerski comes from an Air Force family. His father and grandfather both served with the latter serving in Vietnam.

"I grew up going to this museum," he said. Now, as the co-founder of the company, he is able to give back by making a complete virtual tour of  the museum.

Not only is it a tour, but also a 360-degree virtual reality compatible product which can be used with a cardboard viewer as well as apps on mobile devices to make it seem like a person is walking through  the museum.

Moving the phone up, down or sideways moves the screen.

The set up to take the photos for the tour looks simple. Armed with only a camera and a tripod, it looks like an ordinary photo shoot.

Once Kozerski starts though, the scale of the work is a slow dance of moving the camera every 10 to 14 feet, taking 12 photos in a 360 degree circle in low, medium and bright lighting. The shots will be blended together to create a smooth, flowing tour.

"This is the first one we've done of this scale," Kozerski said.

A software program only available to Google-approved agencies fuses the shots together to create the virtual tour allowing it to be published to the search engine. Once the tour is operational, the museum will own all the rights to it.

"There are many people around the world who may never be able to visit the museum or can't come as often as they like," said museum curator Mike Rowland. "Through this virtual tour they can explore the museum and learn about the great people and history of Robins Air Force Base and the United States Air Force."

The venture will allow people from all over the world to see what the museum in Warner Robins is like, down to the floors and up to the ceiling.

"This is documenting history actually," said Kelly Jeffers from New York, who assisted Kozerski with the project