Uni app leads to VR time travel in Edinburgh

The virtual reality app, to be released on Friday, will add a new dimension for visitors, especially for those visiting the Fringe Festival over the summer.

As well as sweeping panoramas of the city, Edinburgh castle and its surrounding landscape, the mobile app enables exploration of the Netherbow Port, the West Bow, the Grassmarket, Cowgate, Trinity College, Holyrood Palace and St Giles’ Kirk.

Created by the university’s spinout company Smart History, Virtual Time Binoculars: Edinburgh 1544 provides a unique window into the capital around the time of the birth of Mary Queen of Scots.

Visitors will experience the digital reconstruction through a virtual reality app that hosts a range of virtual reality headset usage, as well as a web resource.

“It is striking how the cityscape is both familiar and different from the city today. Instead of the new town there stands a great loch yet the castle stands guard over the city much as it does now,” says Sarah Kennedy, digital designer.

The Edinburgh reconstructions are just the beginning for Smart History.

“We intend for it to be the first of many Virtual Time Binocular apps with depictions of St Andrews and Perth already in the pipeline. We have had interest from across Europe and Latin America, so we expect our Virtual Time travel platform to go global,” says Dr Alan Miller, director.

On Friday, Smart History and Museums and Galleries Edinburgh will host a discovery evening at the Museum of Edinburgh where visitors can explore the brand new digital reconstruction of sixteenth-century Edinburgh. Visitors and residents of Edinburgh will for the first time be able to compare the modern city with the capital of James V and Mary Queen of Scots. The new reconstruction is the first to be created of the period, and is based on a drawing from 1544, the oldest relatively realistic depiction of the capital.

“Ever since we showed the preview video of our digital reconstruction of 1544 Edinburgh, people have been asking when the complete app will be available. We are very pleased to finally release it to the public,” says Dr Elizabeth Rhodes, Smart History’s historian.

Using their mobile phones and VR headsets, users will become virtual time-travellers as they are immersed in historic scenes, stereoscopic video and 360 degree images. Visitors to the city will explore today’s St Giles’ Kirk and the Grassmarket as they learn more about their 16th century equivalents in parallel.

With the global release of the app, Smart History will be in the Scottish capital at the Museum of Edinburgh for city tours and demonstrations from 10am to 4pm both Saturday and Sunday. Expertly guided virtual tours of the Royal Mile will allow virtual time travellers to compare Edinburgh’s past to its present.

The app, which is Google Daydream enabled, allows users to view the reconstructions either in full screen mode or through more immersive virtual reality mode. Hotspots highlight the scenes with more facts and historical images for users to learn about the location.

Guided virtual tours of the Royal Mile will leave from the Museum of Edinburgh at 11am and 2pm on Friday and Saturday.