View Mars Panorama Using a Gyro-Enabled iOS Device
Viewing the photos sent back from NASA’s Mars Curiosity mobile science laboratory has been exciting over the last week, but here’s one with a twist… and a roll. Open this link on an iOS device that contains a gyroscope sensor — like the iPad 2 and third-generation iPad, iPhone 4 and 4S, and fourth-generation iPod touch — and navigate the panorama by tilting and moving the device. (Bonus points for scanning the horizon while you’re sitting in a swivel chair!)
Wow! If you told me a little over thirty years ago when I was learning to program my Commodore Pet that I'd be scanning the surface of Mars with my handheld computer I would have thought you were nuts.
This is phenomenal stuff! To think I am sitting with an iPad on my lap looking at Martian pebbles on a piece of American equipment that is on Mars......wow.....how lucky I am to experience this in my lifetime. Thank you NASA. Thank you tidbits for the cool panorama navigator. Wish it was an app.
Try this, esp good on big display. Whirl around for a few minutes with the top of the vehicle in your screen, then stop. You'll swear the vehicle is moving beneath you, particularly the wheels. You'll likely get a bit dizzy as well.