I’m getting to know you quite well dear reader. I’m thinking that you’re the sort of person who’d love to take a 3D interactive journey through a virtual reconstruction of Roman Leicester. I’m right aren’t I?
Oh yes. Well, your luck is in my friend. De Montfort University have been working on this iPad app to do just that. It’ll transport you back to 210 AD and you can walk around Roman Leicester – aka Ratae Corieltauvorum (thankfully I copied and pasted that). You can stroll around and into buildings or explore objects.
Project leader Nick Higgett, principal lecturer at DMU’s School of Design, tells us..
Our bit has been the digital reconstructions of the buildings in 3D, the 3D scanning of archaeological artefacts from the museum, and to make it all available through mobile devices such as the iPad app. I haven’t seen any other app that does this – it is literally like having a portable window with which you can see into the past.
What this demonstrates is DMU’s expertise in app development and using it for digital heritage purposes, something which we are leaders of in the UK. One of the key things is the collaboration between the different fields of expertise at the university.
So if you fancy a break from playing Angry Birds and want to immerse yourself in history, try this. You can also run it in your browser too.
Pfff.. apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?