Verse Immersive – Tour Of The Galaxy

Verse Immersive is a new Augmented Reality experience. With a special set of glasses you can walk around the Galaxy – AR style.

I saw an ad for a new event in London, Kentucky called Verse Immersive. Went to check it out at The Palace – an unassuming store front in an older strip mall.

I was surprised at the size of The Palace – it’s huge! My guess is this used to be an old anchor store, like a K-Mart or Sears, that’s been repurposed. There were lots of arcade games and three bus loads of kids here. I think it was a senior trip day – the kids were older and well-mannered.

The Palace is big enough to hold a full bowling alley and go-kart track.

But I came for the AR experience. Verse Immersive was located in the back at a specially designed room of blank walls and black lights.

Augmented Reality (AR) is an alternative to Virtual Reality (VR). Instead of big goggles that take up your whole field of vision, AR has transparent glasses that let you see your surroundings. It promises not to make you motion sick, like VR might. I figured I could handle it for a 30 minute tour.

I was the only guest at the 12:30 ticketed time slot.  There are four adventures to choose from, and I opted for a tour of the galaxy. Ben, the game monitor, helped me put on the glasses. He carefully explained what to expect from the session.

I had a fit of giggles at the start. The headset played loud Beethoven music while planets and stars swirled in my vision. It took a couple of minutes to get used to the set-up.

It’s a vivid visual experience. Pictures don’t do it justice – I had to stick the camera under a corner of the glasses just to capture anything at all.  The program is also a point-based game. You must answer questions about the solar system to advance. Turns out I know less than I thought, as evident by the giant scoreboard on the wall.

What is Jupiter’s Great Red Spot made of?  I guessed wrong.  (-15 points)

What companion star has the same orbit as Venus?  Wrong again. It’s Spica.  (-30 points)

What’s the name of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way?  Sagittarius-A.  (-50 points)

Ben felt so bad about my miserable score that he gave me an extra game of shooting asteroids. Much easier.

Verse Immersive AR was an interesting experience, yet I think doing it once was enough. The glasses didn’t make me ill, but it was a shocker to go out to the parking lot and be confronted with Real Reality (RR) afterward.

You might like Augmented Reality, even if you’re a bit wonky with VR goggles. Look for a Verse Immersive installation near you. And don’t forget Spica!