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Virtual-reality device simulates experience of bird flight

By Ben Hooper
The Birdly Flight Simulator gives a visitor to Chicago's Field Museum an idea of what it's like to fly as a bird. Screenshot: WLS-TV
The Birdly Flight Simulator gives a visitor to Chicago's Field Museum an idea of what it's like to fly as a bird. Screenshot: WLS-TV

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April 14 (UPI) -- Visitors to a Chicago museum were treated to a different type of flight simulator -- a virtual-reality experience designed to mimic the flight of a bird.

The Field Museum played host Thursday to the Birdly Flight Simulator, a VR experience created by D3D Cinema, based in Evanston, Ill.

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The simulator mimics the flight of a bird by having riders move their arms to flap their wings and twist their ankles to turn. The machine features fans that blow air as they tilt to create the sensation of flying.

"It's a very active VR experience, which is unique because most VR experiences you just put on a headset and you sit there. This actually full integrates the body and movement and motion, so you literally feel like a bird and you're what a bird would be doing," Don Kempf, CEO of D3D Cinema, told WLS-TV.

Kempf said the simulator is setting off for a national tour that will include stops at the Tech Museum of San Jose, Calif., and Pittsburgh's National Aviary.

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