Experience a journey through time in Basel with the AR app "GoFind!

"The app makes it possible to experience historical images directly on site - it's like a window into the past," says Loris Sauter. The 25-year-old developed the augmented reality app "GoFind!" as part of his bachelor's thesis at the Uni Basel developed.

With the app, the current state can simply be superimposed on the historical image. With the help of augmented reality, the user embarks on a journey through time while still on site. "We can hardly imagine today that Barfüsserplatz in Basel used to be a car park," says Sauter.

Historical recordings about the present

The app relies on augmented reality. In "GoFind!", historical photographs are superimposed on the present. This can be done either directly on site, by search or by image matching.

Tourist as a typical user

For the realisation of the Bachelor project, Sauter initially thought of tourists: "Someone standing in a place in Basel, not knowing the city and wondering what the city looked like 50 years ago, for example".

So far, the app can only access historical images from Basel. But the application is versatile and would also work in other cities, adds Luca Rosetto. He helped develop the Vitrivr search engine that the app uses. "In this sense, the system is very versatile - as long as the location is recognisable, the process can also be used for future scenarios, for example," he says.

"The idea for 'GoFind!' came from the question of what it would be like to make multimedia search available on mobile devices," says team leader Heiko Schuldt, professor of computer science at the University of Basel.

App is only a prototype

There is no date for the app's release, Sauter explains: "The app is a prototype that will primarily help us break down research questions."

However, the research group is open to cooperation with third parties. "We would already be interested in making the app available to a larger circle," says Schuldt.

Source: 20 Minuten / unibas