This Augmented Reality mobile application, built for the Boerenkerkhof Graveyard in the municipality of Enschede, was built by me, with a team of students from the University of Twente. As lead developer, I was responsible for the Augmented Reality functionality, Programming, Design and publishing. For each animated story within the app, 3D animators were hired. The app was featured on the regional news, and can be downloaded from a QR code on the graveyard itself, or from the link on the bottom of the page.
Boerenkerkhof AR is an app that transforms the Boerenkerkhof in Enschede (NL) into an interactive museum. This graveyard, which was used between 1850 – 1950, houses a ton of fascinating stories and characters.
Our team of historians from the SHSEL (Stichting Historische SociĆ«teit Enschede-Lonneker) selected around 15 – 20 of these characters, whose stories combined give an insightful view on the history of Enschede itself.
These stories can be fully experienced, on site, using Augmented Reality. This app allows you to just walk up to a grave, scan it, and it will tell you a story about the person buried there, supported by lively 3D animations.
These stories are voiced by either relatives of the buried person, or people who fill a comparable role in our current society (e.g. we have a banker who had no kin, so we managed to have him voiced by another banker).
Although the audio fragments are only available in Dutch, the app itself provides English subtitles as well as an English interface. The app also provides sources for further reading, ways of contacting the SHSEL as well as the developers of the app, credit to the sponsors and creators, support for non-AR compatible devices, background information on the graveyard itself, and a build-in tutorial on how to use the app most effectively.
The app is build in Unity 2020.2.3f1 and uses ARFoundation for its AR functionality. It’s published on both Android as well as IOS.
