Time travellers wanted to visit Trim Castle in 3D
Hannah McNamara
Trim man Eric Gilligan has released his new historical app which allows people to explore Trim Castle and through their phones see what it originally looked like.
Eric is currently looking for people to test the app and give him feedback.
At the moment the app only works for certain Android phones but Eric hopes to release a version on Apple soon.
As it is a location based augmented reality app you must be on the site to use it.
"This Trim Castle AR tour gives you a 3D reconstruction of the grounds of the castle on your phone or tablet and allows you to explore what might have once been on the site and enter some of the buildings," Eric explains.
Over the past few years Eric has visited several heritage sites and on a trip to Milan he tried a VR headset that allowed him to feel as though he had entered a different world but was not able to move around the space.
He thought about what if there was some way that you could see what a site looked like years ago while also seeing how its changed in modern times and this app allows you to do exactly this!
"With this app you don't need to read signs displayed around the site and visualise what it might have looked like, you can walk around with your phone and have the models follow you," he says. "You can get a feel for the spaces and go in and out of them and wander about."
This is the first time Eric has created anything like this and he has been working on this AR tour app for two years on and off:
"I have been working on and off on this app for two years now and my initial release was a bit unstable. Now with the release of Googles Geo-spatial API I can fix models that become more stable in the real world.
"Its basically like attaching 3D models to google map street view and having them persist in the real world. Think, Pokemon Go!
"I hope to have people test it and and in return drop me some feedback through my Trim Castle AR Tour Facebook page"
All you have to do is download the app from playstore here, enter onto the main grounds of Trim Castle, open app and once it loads walk around the site to explore.