07 May 2014

Terrassa Augmentada is here!

Terrassa Augmentada is an augmented reality application that allows you to enjoy a self-guided tour through the most emblematic industrial and art-nouveau buildings of Terrassa.

The application was presented on Wednesday May 7th at mNACTEC.

The event was conducted by Jaume Perarnau, Director of mNACTEC, and Maria Teresa Casals, Councillor for Tourism of Terrassa City Council.

Under the motto Position yourself and time-travel, the Museum of Science and Technology of Catalonia (mNACTEC) and Terrassa City Council presented Terrassa Augmentada, a new application for smartphones and tablets that provides a self-guided tour around industrial and art-nouveau Terrassa. The application invites you to explore the main hotspots of the city (like Vapor Aymerich Amat i Jover or Masia Freixa) as well as some unknown assets, such as Cases de Cal Maurí

Jaume Perarnau, Director of mNACTEC, and Teresa Casals, Councillor for Tourism of Terrassa City Council, agreed on highlighting the investment of the museum to stay updated on new technologies and raise awareness on the city. The Director of mNACTEC also emphasised both the"collaborative work carried out with Terrassa City Council” and the “funding provided by the European project CreativeCH."

Augmented Reality to display virtual worlds and the real world in real time. The application has been developed by the Audiovisual Unit of Fundació i2cat, non-profit technology centre which promotes R+D+i activities in the field of Information and Communication Technologies and Future Internet. Mercè Lopez, Project Coordinator at i2cat, said that augmented reality "allows users to view the real and virtual worlds in real time, superimposing historic photos of the most emblematic buildings of industrial Terrassa. “To visualize how buildings were formerly, visitors simply stand on the markers placed on the floor in front of each landmark”.

Augmented Reality... and more. In addition to the augmented reality, each landmark offers multimedia features: audio, pictures and videos designed for those who want to know more about the industrial and art-nouveau roots of Terrassa in a fun and entertaining way.

The project places special emphasis on the active participation of young people. With the purpose of optimizing users’ experience, Terrassa Augmentada received the collaboration of students from Torre del Palau High School, who suggested improvements to the application after testing a beta version while enjoying an itinerary around the city.