Seattle, Washington – Dubbed ‘Sky Survey’, photographer and designer Nick Risinger has released a new iPhone and iPad app that gives users a never before seen view of the heavens. Based on his portrait of the cosmos which gained notoriety in 2011, Sky Survey debuts on the iOS platform to deliver a highly realistic and interactive window to the night sky.

“I’ve squeezed every possible drop of my photography into this app to give people a new way to experience the stars,” said Risinger, founder of the app’s parent company, UNIVRSE. “To reveal and interact with the night sky in photographic detail is a truly magical experience. For me, it’s a dream come true.”

What sets Sky Survey apart from usual planetarium apps are the powerful graphics. While others use computer generated points to represent stars, ‘Sky Survey’ is based on over 37,000 photographic exposures collected over the course of Risinger’s year-long journey spanning 60,000 miles. The end result is a visual experience that is more like an x-ray window to the sky than a simulated map.

“Things look more real in this app because they are real,” said Risinger. “In a sense, it gives you superhuman vision to a hidden reality. And, at the same time, it’s a great astronomy teaching tool with Wikipedia integration and an interactive search feature.”

Users who are curious to identify Saturn, Orion, or any number of celestial sights can be automatically guided where to look with a simple search. The app automatically orients itself to the user’s current time and location so everything is displayed in its correct place. Plus, the app supports Apple’s latest iPad with Retina display for super-crisp graphics. Risinger credits the performance of the app to a development company known as R&D Arts.

“We tried very hard to push the limits of this technology and the result is one of the most fluid apps on the iOS platform,” said Evgeny Maksakov of R&D Arts, chief engineer of the Sky Survey app. “The way it responds to your movements really does create the illusion of holding a window to the night sky and makes it a joy to use.”

About R&D Arts, Inc:
R&D Arts, Inc. is a software research and development and consulting company with headquarters in Vancouver, BC. Founded by a group of technology enthusiasts, R&D Arts specializes in mobile multimedia, mobile video editing, digital cartography, navigation, dynamic data analysis, augmented reality, and reporting technologies.

Device Requirements:
* iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPad 2 Wi-Fi, iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G, iPad (3rd generation) and iPad Wi-Fi + 4G
* Requires iOS 5.0 or later
* Universal app optimized for display on all iOS devices
* 93.7 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Sky Survey 1.0 is $2.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Education category.

Sky Survey 1.0
Sky Survey 1.0
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Nick Risinger’s photographic work made worldwide news in 2011 with his ‘Photopic Sky Survey’, a 5,000 megapixel panorama of the entire night sky. Since its release, it has received accolades from the Advanced Imaging Conference and the Cartography and Geographical Informational Society, has been featured in international astronomical publications and has been adopted for use by the European Southern Observatory. Risinger has appeared on PRI’s The World, Wired.com and has given talks to enthusiasts at Boeing, Intel and Pixar. His company, UNIVRSE, LLC is responsible for distributing the Sky Survey app.