President Barack Obama says he and First Lady Michelle Obama always joke that they're just renters of The White House, and the owners are the American people. Today, a week before Obama's presidency ends, Oculus released a new 360 video called "The People’s House: Inside the White House with Barack and Michelle Obama" where the Obama family takes you on a tour of their "rental" one last time.
Throughout the video, President Obama recounts his time as president, and Michelle Obama explains what it was like to try and make the historic home feel like her own. President Obama starts with the history of The White House, and how it was designed by an Irish immigrant, and takes you from room to room remembering his time. The Cross Hall is where he told the American people that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. The Situation Room is where plenty of presidents before him dealt with the Gulf War or where former President George W. Bush handled the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The Oval Office is where Obama thought about how to make The White House as a home more accessible to people who might not be as well-connected in the political world (and if we're being honest, the Oval Office just wasn't as big as Obama had expected from what he had seen on television, he says in the video).
Oculus' new video is just one of the many ways The White House has embraced technology over Obama's tenure. When he set up shop at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the president created the roles of Chief technology officer, Chief data scientist and Chief performance officer—a nod at how important the tech industry had become—and with those, he hired people such as ex-Googler Megan Smith. A new White House app released Dec. 1 lets experience a year in the life of The White House by scanning a one-dollar bill (and only a one-dollar bill). And in 2012, the Obama administration worked with Google to create Google Maps Street View tour of the inside of The White House.
Take a look at a preview of the new Oculus video below:
Image used via CC BY-SA 3.0 — credit AgnosticPreachersKid
