Atif Ghani
We want to address this notion of an “invisible barrier” and ask the question: How best to leverage current technologies to make museum and archives collection items more accessible (whether in a location specific sense or other more thematically curated immersive experiences?) Heritage5G.com is focused on leveraging the possibilities of 5G technology – in particular edge computing and cloud-based AR/VR applications – as a way to take existing content from archives and making them aware to new and existing audiences for the content. We envisage three principle revenue streams: o Clients or consumer within existing museums and galleries as charging an additional fee for an additional immersive experience (see 59 Production/National Gallery’s recent Leonardo Immersive Experience); o Location-based Augmented Reality experiences which may be able to situate archive items back at their original locations or take the items and place them within other pre-existing spatial locations, where customers pay a small fee individual fee to acces content or an enterprise fee for groups and schools; o New premium immersive virtual spaces where participants are able to move around spaces and manipulate objects within that space. With each of these possibilities, the archive items could be used in multiple ways and at various contexts simultaneously. We see a new commercial possibility to re-present existing archive items in a digitised immersive manner leveraging 5G technologies, if curated appropriately, will become the basis of new IP, cultural products and experiences that could be exploited. These new revenues we expect would be shared between the Archives themselves and Heritage5G as Producer.
Heritage5G.com has emerged through the strategic partnership between Berkshire-based Immersive Computing Labs and Newham-based HyperActive Developments. Between our two companies, we hold the technical skills base to create unique XR heritage experiences. During 2018 Immersive Computing Labs worked with Slough Museum to design an Augmented Reality walking trail around Slough High Street called Slough Stories using selected archive material from the museum and voices of Slough residents. Visitors were able to walk around the High Street and learn about the history of Slough using their phones and tablets. We are currently working on a project with selected items from University College London (UCL) Special Collections and use Dickens’ Oliver Twist to build a richer understanding of Victorian East London.