Testing

Testing2017-03-01T10:04:07+00:00

I find it fascinating that these trees have taken on the role of time capsules. The museum itself houses the world’ s largest collection of militaria from the Battle of Arnhem, but few visitors are aware of the physical remains of the battle in the now peaceful forest just outside the museum. By disclosing the hidden content inside the trees we aim to extend the museum narrative to its surrounding space. I developed an augmented reality application which runs on smartphones and tablets. By pointing the device’s camera towards pre-selected trees, its screen shows an X-ray of the tree superimposed on the real tree, giving the illusion that you can look inside it.

Because of the travelling distance between our institute and the museum, I chose to first develop a prototype at our lab using an ordinary piece of tree trunk. Obtaining a tree trunk was easy but obtaining a tree trunk with bullets inside was somewhat of a challenge. Since no trees around the museum were scheduled to be cut down, I had to find an alternative way to put bullets in our tree trunk. Members of “Defensie Schietvereniging”, a rifle club for employees of the Dutch Ministry of Defence, were willing to help us. They arranged genuine World War II weaponry from their depot (a Lee Enfield .303 rifle, M1 .30 carbine and Browning Hi-Power .9mm handgun) and fired multiple rounds at our tree trunk with genuine ammunition.

I find it fascinating that these trees have taken on the role of time capsules. The museum itself houses the world’ s largest collection of militaria from the Battle of Arnhem, but few visitors are aware of the physical remains of the battle in the now peaceful forest just outside the museum. By disclosing the hidden content inside the trees we aim to extend the museum narrative to its surrounding space. I developed an augmented reality application which runs on smartphones and tablets. By pointing the device’s camera towards pre-selected trees, its screen shows an X-ray of the tree superimposed on the real tree, giving the illusion that you can look inside it.

Because of the travelling distance between our institute and the museum, I chose to first develop a prototype at our lab using an ordinary piece of tree trunk. Obtaining a tree trunk was easy but obtaining a tree trunk with bullets inside was somewhat of a challenge. Since no trees around the museum were scheduled to be cut down, I had to find an alternative way to put bullets in our tree trunk. Members of “Defensie Schietvereniging”, a rifle club for employees of the Dutch Ministry of Defence, were willing to help us. They arranged genuine World War II weaponry from their depot (a Lee Enfield .303 rifle, M1 .30 carbine and Browning Hi-Power .9mm handgun) and fired multiple rounds at our tree trunk with genuine ammunition.