Residents and guests of Moscow, Kaliningrad, Nizhny Novgorod and a dozen other cities in Russia and Ukraine can now get acquainted with the technology of “augmented reality” using a useful example. A new tour app overlays historical photos onto camera images, allowing you to see what the city was like a hundred years ago and visually compare it to the current situation.

Combining real-world information with the riches of a computer network is a task that leading developers have been struggling with for decades. A well-known solution called “augmented reality” is that auxiliary data from the Internet is superimposed on the picture of what is happening around. The technology was primarily used by military pilots, but today it has dozens of “civilian” applications, mostly for entertainment purposes. It's nice to see that you can add an element of learning, culture and historical heritage to pure entertainment.

This is embodied in the “Virtual History” project. Everything is very simple: install a special application on any Android smartphone, Windows Phone or iPhone, or even a tablet, and go for a walk through the historical center. The app checks HistoryPin's online database to find historical photos of nearby buildings "glued" to a city map. The data can be viewed in the form of ordinary cards with a photo and text description, or you can turn on the notorious augmented reality - and, by adjusting the “transparency,” superimpose the image broadcast by the camera onto a historical photo. So you can find out that a tram ran along Manezhnaya Square, and a small park was laid out in front of the Bolshoi Theater, and also appreciate the transformation of the Kremlin, the National Hotel and other historical buildings.

The card and map mode, although less spectacular, also has great practical benefits. The history of the houses is described in detail here - to the envy of many tour guides. And the ability to rotate and zoom the map, see your position on it and nearby objects is an excellent tool in planning your own walking tour of your hometown. Native residents will appreciate the ability to independently add photos from their home archives to the online database and provide them with family history facts.

To make it easier to install the application, special information modules with a QR code are located near the attractions of the cities participating in the project, which can be read to proceed to the virtual tour.

Historical photographs are provided by numerous partners of the “Virtual History” project, for example, in Moscow, this is the association “Moscow that does not exist.” And the publication on the HistoryPin platform was carried out by the MTS operator. However, to use the application and service, you do not have to be an MTS subscriber, and the application itself is free. The only practical benefit for the operator here is a demonstration of the unique capabilities that the owner of a smartphone with mobile Internet receives.

Sergey Malenkovich

Take your smartphone for a walk