Move tourists back in time

The Historical Museum of Krakow had amazing 3D models of medieval Krakow made in Sketchup, which were used for presentation in the rooms on TV screens. The most difficult thing was to translate it into tourist mobile devices and to lift it outside the walls of the museum for a wider audience. In 2014, mobile devices were not as efficient and we also had the optimization issues.

Mobile time machine

The project from the Museum received direct funding from the EIC Accelerator of the European Commission as the first project in Poland to receive this prestigious grant. We built a prototype application in Unity and then in Unreal Engine visualizing full 3D scenes using accelerometer, compass and GPS, making sure the graphics match the actual surroundings behind the tablet. Tourists were invited by the Museum in two places using roll-ups to download applications for mobile devices (android). The museum has also made several posts about the app on social media. 3D content has been rebuilt to low poly with nice textures. The entire square has been carefully reconstructed so that even the texture of the stone floor matches the stones used in the 15th-century Krakow.

Results

We have recorded over 2,000 downloads from users visiting the square in almost a month based on two roll-ups and limited activity in social media. We also received over 50 media mentions.

The project received the Galileo Masters award for innovative use of the GPS signal and was invited to participate in the Finnish Creatifi accelerator based in Helsinki. It also enjoyed great interest from travel service providers (agencies, restaurants, guides) who limited themselves to advertising their services in places of strict importance.