Bordesley Abbey application

So, funny story time. For one of my masters modules I had to propose an interactive museum application for a museum of my choice. I chose Bordesley Abbey, arguably the most historically significant place in my hometown of Redditch.

I designed it so people could download an application and go round the abbey scanning the builders marks to learn more. It would have interactive games and it would be a lot of fun. Little did I know when I was theoretically pitching my application in my masters module, AP Interactive had already made the app and launched it just after I handed in my pitch. It was kind of spooky to be honest!

MD Series: The gate in Exhibition Square, York, UK

It seems odd that when I’m creating something that will primarily use sound that photographs would be such an important source of information. But it truly is. For example, take a look at this photo from the 1880s:

Photograph looking down Bootham Street in C.1880

Pokemon Go

Screenshot of a Ratata at Coughton Court (National Trust)

Now, unless you’ve been living under a rather large rock all summer it’s unlikely to have escaped your attention the sheer number of people playing Pokemon Go. Now, whether you’ve played it yourself (I think it’s rather awesome!), or know someone else who does, it’s unlikely you haven’t at least heard the name. But, what I wanted to talk about was how this app could both be utilised and analysed for the heritage sector.

How can the heritage sector embrace Pokemon Go?

The Battle of Bannockburn Experience

The Battle of Bannockburn Experience is a fully Augmented Reality experience created by Bright White Limited for the National Trust.

 

The problem faced by the National Trust was how do you make a battle come to life when the site, before the experience was added, was essentially a flat field. How do you make the experience tangible? This is where the Battle of Bannockburn Experience was born.

AR and VR- talking about the differences

This video, perhaps a little long, is an interesting chat to a couple of developers of the company ARTIFACT based in York. This video presents some interesting views about the differences between AR and VR. But also at the rate at which this kind of technology is improving.

I feel this kind of video, and indeed company, shows the rate at which this kind of technology is improving and the thought processes needed in order to maintain relevance in this field.

Let me know what you think. As always, I’ll look forward to hearing your input.

Kirkgate: The Victorian Street App

‘Kirkgate: The Victorian Street’ app follows a fairly similar concept to the Streetmuseum app down in London. Created by ‘York Castle Museum’ the app overlays Victorian photographs over modern shots of the city (If you look at point number 3, I think you’ll find it strangely topical).

Screenshot of the map used to navigate the web version of the app

Streetmuseum app London

Screenshot from the Streetmuseum app. Copyright The Telegraph

Another app from London (why does London get all the good apps? It’s not like it’s the capital or anything!).

Augmenting the Senses: Taste

Just a quick video to explain the concept. Let me know if you like the video and whether you would like to see more videos like this in the future.

What is a HMD?

First off, what does HMD stand for? Well, it stands for Head Mounted Display. The most common form of this is probably Google Glass, however, HMDs in heritage are currently much more bulky.

Augmenting the Senses: Sight

This is the most common form that you probably think of when you think of Augmented Reality. Using a tablet/mobile device, you hold it up, look at the screen and information is placed on top of the live feed. From the Guinness World Records 2015 book (where things appear out of the page) to the applications that I’ve been studying such as York Churches. There are many different ways to augment sight.