A new interactive map has been designed to allow families to enjoy a free fun day out and boost high street footfall.<\/p>\n
Visitors and residents in Herne Bay can now step back in time with the augmented reality app, Time and Tides, which has been produced by Canterbury City Council.<\/p>\n
Cllr Dan Watkins (centre) with other creators of the new Times and Tide app<\/p>\n
It includes a map for a walking tour through the town, highlighting its history with interactive animations.<\/p>\n
Guided via the user\u2019s phone camera, the free application combines live images of the real world with geo-tagged computer-generated pictures.<\/p>\n
Dinosaurs at the promenade, Roman ships on the shoreline and smugglers at the Prince of Wales pub are among the illustrations.<\/p>\n
The two-mile tour begins at Herne Bay clock tower and includes checkpoints along the promenade and Mortimer Street.<\/p>\n
Canterbury City Council Dan Watkins, who helped create the app, told KentOnline it is a fun way for people to get outside and learn about Herne Bay\u2019s heritage.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we really wanted to do is to draw people into the town,\u201d said the Conservative councillor.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes modern technology to make a walking tour really fun, but you\u2019re still active, you\u2019re outside getting exercise and you\u2019re still supporting local shops.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause if you follow the trail, it will take a while and at some point you\u2019ll probably want to stop in for a coffee or a beer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cllr Watkins says the app was developed over two years and on a \u201cshoe-string budget of a few thousand pounds\u201d.<\/p>\n
Visitors and residents in Herne Bay can now step back in time with an augmented-reality app designed to entertain families and boost high street footfall<\/p>\n
Funding for the project came from Kent County Council\u2019s councillor grant scheme, such that it can be made available free-of-charge to the community.<\/p>\n
Local production company, Manoghosts Studios Ltd, developed the app in conjunction with Crash Studios CIC, sourcing technology creatives from local universities.<\/p>\n
The time travel elements of the app design were inspired by Dr Who creator Anthony Coburn, who lived in Herne Bay.<\/p>\n
T.W. Burgess, director of Manoghosts Studios, added: \u201cIn 1962, the Dr Who writer and producer, Anthony Coburn was considering a whole new means of time travel from the tranquility of his Herne Bay home.<\/p>\n
Dinosaurs at the promenade, Roman ships on the Herne Bay shore and smugglers at the Prince of Wales pub are among the illustrations in the new Times and Tide app<\/p>\n
\u201cToday we are inviting residents and visitors to follow in Anthony\u2019s footsteps and experience the seafront of yesteryear with the Times and Tides tour.\u201d<\/p>\n
Time and Tides is available to download for free on the iOS App Store and Google Play.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new interactive map has been designed to allow families to enjoy a free fun day out and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":931473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[49,48,60636,4852,47076,61,260,261,262],"class_list":["post-931472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-virtual-reality","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-herne-bay","tag-human-interest","tag-quirky","tag-technology","tag-virtual-reality","tag-virtualreality","tag-vr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=931472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/931473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=931472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=931472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=931472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}