The Augmented Telegrapher & wAVE

This project is looking at multi-player mixed reality in a museum context. A team of researchers at Falmouth University's Games Academy are developing an Augmented Telegrapher to explore the design and deployment of a multi-player mixed reality experience in a museum context.

VR glasses and telegraph machine image with AHRC logo overlaid
Project lead Professor Tanya Krzywinska and Dr Michael Scott
Project website atdev.falmouthgamesacademy.com

Mixed Reality (MR) is where digital objects can be overlaid onto real world spaces made possible by wearable headset devices such as Microsoft's HoloLens, or where digital objects are overlaid onto a mobile phone's camera image. This technology has the advantage that a user can see the real place they are in at the same time as seeing 'fictional' objects within the same space which can be interacted with.

These developments can be mobilised within museums and heritage sites to bring to life those places and their collections, helping to interpret and animate their hidden histories. The project team are developing an MR application for the use of visitors to the Telegraph Museum at Porthcurno in Cornwall, a small museum focused on the history of transatlantic telecommunications and the site of the first telecommunication cable running between Britain and the US. Falmouth University is working closely with the staff at the Museum and with the Cornwall Museums Partnership to develop an application that will help the museum to attract wider interest from audiences who the Museum has had difficulty appealing to.