Tech Check: Fernbank Museum app - Chicago News and Weather | FOX 32 News

What if you could make a museum exhibit come to life? It sounds like a movie plot, but for one museum in metro Atlanta, it's becoming closer to a reality.

The Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta unveiled a new smart phone app which will change the way you visit museums in the future. The new app helps engage children of all ages with their exhibits.

The app is really just an extension of the exhibit, just in the digital world. One example given by executives at the museum involves the dinosaurs in the great hall. The app allows museum staff to simulate how the dinosaurs would have walked if they were alive today. It is a question that many ask, but now the answer can fully be realized by the app.

Once the app is downloaded to your smart phone and started, it will search for you and find where you are in the museum. That is when the real adventure begins.

In addition to the media the app delivers, it also challenges you, like asking you to find a fossil in the floor. It also digitally transports you outside the museum to sites where fossil would be found or places relevant to an exhibit.

There's also something called the paleontologist's journal where you see the museum through the eyes of a scientist.

And don't be frightened if the app gets triggered automatically as you walk up to a certain exhibit. That is just all part of the adventure. But if you're looking for something specific, it can help guide you there as well.

The app is free and is only available for iPhone users, but Fernbank administrators say they will soon have an Android version available.

For more information on the app visit the Fernbank website at fernbankmuseum.org.