Coventry
Telegraph reports that Serious Games International has spent 18 months working on a revolutionary app that
changes the way tourists interact with destinations.
Free to
download from iTunes, Eye Shakespeare is designed to enhance the
experience of tourists visiting Stratford. They can use it in seven
different languages and it takes in key sites - including the five Shakespeare
houses and five centuries of local history.
Eye
Shakespeare uses augmented reality
to bring Shakespeare to life. It also allows players to view a 3D
reconstruction of Shakespeare’s final home in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Users can bring
Shakespeare into the scene and pose with him to capture photos of themselves
with the world’s greatest writer in his home town. The souvenir pictures can
then be digitally printed at the Shakespeare Birthplace gift shop.
The app is
the result of a pioneering partnership between Serious Games International,
which is based at the Coventry Innovation Village, Hewlett Packard and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
Tim Luft,
managing director of the Serious Games International says:
“This app revolutionizes the way tourists and
residents interact with their destination. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has
embraced our cutting edge technology to create a real wow for visitors which
will certainly add value to Stratford-upon-Avon’s tourism offering.”
“Tourism is
a key area for us and our innovative technology solutions encourage footfall
and guarantee ROI. These include Chatterbox technology - a 3D avatar that can
be programmed with key data about your company and in multiple languages,
Chatterbox acts as the face and voice of your attraction or destination so a
tourist information provision can now become a 24hr solution.”
“We are
really proud to be developing technology solutions in Coventry. We have very
quickly developed a world class team here and combining Serious Games
experience with academia brings a fresh and extremely proven perspective to the
business."
“The public
and private sectors are clearly seeing the added value that applying game
techniques to serious software solutions brings and the uniqueness of having
this vast experience under one roof will ensure that we have the platform to
develop creative applications that will redefine success within this market.”