A step back in time

Using augmented reality to show us what was

Concept

Using location data and three dimensional modelling, create a representation of an object/place/building that used to exist in our world in the past but which doesn’t anymore.

Examples

Hitlers Bunker in Berlin (now a car park), parts of the Colosseum in Rome (damaged over time) or the Duckbill stone pedestal in Oregon (recently destroyed by vandals).

User flow

Once opened by a user (manually, or from a location based notification if the user has background location sharing turned on) the app will automatically search/confirm it’s location and display the stepback available to the user.

The circle will pulsate bigger and smaller as it loads. Once data has been loaded the small circle will scale up and display the users current location with two call to actions.

Users can press on “Tell me more” to read a brief summary of the object/place/building they can view (pulled in from Wikipedia).

Users can also press on the “Take me back” button at which point the app will begin to load in the data/model files for that location.

Once the user presses the main button on the previous screen the circle will shrink and continue to pulsate until the location data has been loaded in.

Once loaded users will be promoted to rotate their phone for optimal viewing.

Once rotated the apps interface will recess. Users can walk around the object/place/building that they can see in their phones screen to have a three dimensional view of what used to be there.

The grey area is for mockup purposes, it could be a fully coloured render which exists in place of the original object before it was destroyed/removed etc.

Closing thoughts

I’ve had this idea for a while now, going back to when Google first started using computer generated buildings in it’s maps. I’m pretty sure there was a site that did something like this but a quick search didn’t seem to provide any good, current apps.

In any case this was a quick design exercise much like my previous IMDB Trivia Concept or Destiny Menu Concept so as always, thoughts and opinions are appreciated.

Also if anyone can make this happen, let me know.

Note: I used the Duckbill as an example as it was easy enough to Photoshop in the short amount of time I wanted to spend on this. Something like Hitlers Bunker would be a far better use of the app in a real world situation.