Augmented reality might be the future, but my favorite application of it yet transports you far into past. StreetMuseum—an iPhone app from the Museum of London—overlays four hundred years of historic images on today’s city streets.
StreetMuseum makes creative use of Google Maps and geo-tagging to show users how London used to look. You can use it to check out pictures and info about nearby historic locations, which is has more of a straightforward walking tour feel. But the fun starts when you’re actually standing in front of a location in the database. That’s when the AR “3D view” kicks in, with views that may look something like this:
via
gizmodo.comYears ago, while visiting Washington DC for research for a novel series, I picked up a book called “On This Spot in Washington DC.” It was this amazing book that allowed you to look up exact addresses of anywhere in DC and read about what happened on that spot. I’d find myself in front of an interesting building and I’d pull out the book and read about what happened there. I could even hold up some of the pages in the book and match pictures to what modern day looked like.
So, it’s so COOL that they’ve adapted augmented reality technology to do this! I am so jealous that London gets this, though—like the gizmodo post notes: we need one of these for NYC!! Hell, every major city in the world could use one of these!
Oh and versions of these apps for non-iPhones would be nice, too. Knowledge should be universally available, kids!
