Bergen-Belsen recreated with augmented reality
During World War Two, around 70,000 people died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
All traces of the camp were destroyed after the war, so today the area looks like an ordinary German forest.
A new tablet application, however, uses geo-localisation – as well as virtual and augmented reality – to recreate the camp at various points in history.
Stephanie Billib, a historian at the Bergen-Belsen Memorial, explains: “The memorial today is an empty space. There are no barracks or any other remnants of the camp. But when you see this reconstruction and when you walk around with this (a tablet connected to the app), it is a useful aid to get a feeling for the place.”
The Bergen-Belsen Memorial app was developed by scientists at the Synthetic Perceptive, Emotive and Cognitive Systems (SPECS) group at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona.
SPECS is a core partner in the European research project, Collective Experience of Empathic Data Systems, which is aimed at developing integrated technologies to support human experience and understanding of large datasets.
See the full story with video here: http://www.euronews.com/2016/03/18/virtual-reality-app-recreates-horror-of-germany-concentration-camp/