Government of Haryana
Immersive AR Experience (Cultural Institution)
Bringing Kalpana Chawla’s Journey to Life in AR for Govt. of Haryana
For this project with the Government of Haryana, our goal was simple but ambitious: turn Kalpana Chawla’s life story into an immersive, tactile experience that children and families could literally hold in their hands. As part of a Women’s Day celebration, we designed and built an AR booth that invited visitors to explore her journey—from Karnal to NASA—through interactive 3D scenes.
We began with the core narrative. Rather than overwhelming visitors with dates and facts, we broke her story into three clear touchpoints: her roots in Haryana, her dream of spaceflight, and her legacy as an astronaut. Each touchpoint became a physical mat: a map of Haryana, a view of Earth from space, and a map of the USA. These acted as both storytelling anchors and tracking markers for the AR experience.
On the design side, we focused on making each scene feel both familiar and aspirational. The Haryana map features a small astronaut and a playful paper airplane, symbolising early dreams and first steps. The USA map supports a towering 3D space shuttle and the NASA logo, conveying the scale and ambition of her journey. Finally, a framed AR portrait of Kalpana Chawla emerges from a view of Earth, surrounded by subtle particle effects that give the moment a quiet sense of wonder.
To support this storytelling, we developed custom 3D assets tuned specifically for this experience. The shuttle, astronaut, and supporting elements were modelled and optimised for real‑time performance, making sure they felt high‑fidelity without compromising responsiveness on a tablet. We also designed custom visual markers so that the AR content would lock precisely to each mat, maintaining alignment even as visitors moved around the booth.
On the development side, reliability and ease-of-use were non‑negotiable. The app was built to work in a busy public environment: fast to start, intuitive to use, and resilient to variable lighting and handling. We spent considerable time iterating on marker design and detection so that visitors could simply point the tablet at the mat and immediately see the world come alive—no explanations needed.
For us at Chaarana Labs, this project was a meaningful intersection of culture, education, and immersive technology—using AR not just to impress, but to inspire the next generation of dreamers from Haryana and beyond.