Admire popular tourist attractions in the form of holograms with castles in the air

A work by Avantgarde subsidiary 361/DRX for the German National Tourist Board provides a showcase case for the use of Mixed Reality.

For the "Luftschlösser" project, the start-up spin-off of the Avantgarde Group has made the most popular tourist attractions accessible in the form of holograms in a mixed reality application. In concrete terms, this means that with the Hololens, a pair of data glasses from Microsoft, users can view cultural landmarks such as Sanssouci Palace and Neuschwanstein as holograms floating in space. The object can be circled and a speaker provides additional information via voiceover.

The project will celebrate its premiere at the ITB, the leading trade fair for the global tourism industry, which takes place in Berlin. There, the technology will be shown primarily to trade visitors. For the time being, the application is not intended for end consumers. Hardly surprising, given that only a tiny percentage of the population can call a Microsoft Hololens their own.

However, works 361/DRX is currently working on an extension of the project to include WebAR. This is a form of augmented reality that does not require complex hardware devices and works via a URL in the mobile browser. "While the marketing world continues to discuss the potential of augmented and virtual reality, with 'Luftschlösser' we are delivering a concrete mixed reality application that represents real added value for the entire tourism industry," explains Daniel Sack, managing director of 361/DRX.

Source: horizont / Youtube / 361drx