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TECHNOLOGY A23
Tuesday 15 March 2016
New virtual reality app Timelooper takes you back in history
JAMES BROOKS This Feb. 2, 2016 image made from video shows Timelooper co-founder Yigit Yigiter looking uses it to help visitors ap-
Associated Press through a Google cardboard virtual reality headset as he sees a recreation of the Great Fire of preciate the view from its
LONDON (AP) — Imagine London in 1666. sky-high observatory. The
watching frantic shop- Dali Museum in Florida cre-
keepers busily extinguish Associated Press ated a virtual reality ex-
the Great Fire of London, or perience that lets visitors
sheltering from Nazi bomb- drained. When we take ries ago. The videos are vate equity and moved to walk through a landscape
ing raids during the Blitz. location-based, meaning the British capital to begin painting by the Surrealist
Now, thanks to a new vir- you back in time, you ac- visitors must visit the sites to work on the first incarnation master Salvador Dali. And
tual reality app, you can unlock the historical experi- of the app. a company called YouVisit
travel back in time to be tually see the historically ences. has created over 300 VR
immersed in these events. Feinberg and his cofound- The first version was experiences for destina-
The Timelooper app allows accurate representation of er, Yigit Yigiter, were frus- launched in July 2015 and tions from Vatican City to
users to experience key trated with current tour- featured three sites. Mexico.
moments in London history the tower in its heyday.” ism technology, which they While Timelooper uses VR Timelooper is a member
with just a smartphone and say hasn’t evolved much to offer a unique historical of the Travel Tech Lab, an
a cardboard headset. Not far away at St. Paul’s since the introduction perspective, the technol- incubator space for trav-
For example, when of audio guides. In 2014, ogy has been exploding in el technology start-ups,
Timelooper cofounder An- Cathedral, Timelooper Yigiter’s wife brought home many directions through- partly created by London
drew Feinberg visits the a Google cardboard VR out the tourism industry. & Partners, the city’s official
Tower of London, a his- users travel back to the headset, and he began Carnival Cruise Line uses it promotional company. Fol-
toric castle on the banks thinking about an immer- to market cruises, the Dol- lowing the launch last year,
of London’s Thames River, Great Fire of London 350 sive virtual reality tourism lywood theme park in Ten- Feinberg and Yigiter were
he doesn’t queue up with experience. By September nessee uses it to show off contacted by destinations
hordes of tourists to catch years ago, in 1666. The fire 2015, he’d quit his job in pri- a new rollercoaster, and from China to Spain.
a glimpse of the royal fam- the Seattle Space Needle “Nothing replaces the ex-
ily’s crown jewels. Instead, burned for four days, de- perience of being on site,
he uses Timelooper’s time but you don’t always know
travel tourism app to expe- stroying over 13,000 houses. what the stories are about
rience the tower over 750 those sights,” Yigiter said.
years ago, in 1255. The smartphone’s built-in Timelooper’s travel app is
Instead of seeing a busy also used by those working
London tourist site, Fein- motion detection allows in London’s booming tour-
berg sees a medieval mar- ism industry. Blue Badge
ketplace, a formidable time travelers wearing a tourist guide Ruth Polling
fortress, even an elephant pulls her cardboard head-
being led down a path. cardboard headset to set out as she escorts visitors
“We actually overlay the to Trafalgar Square and lets
current infrastructure with move their gaze around them see what happened
what the infrastructure on Sept. 23, 1940, when a
of the tower and the sur- the virtual world, seemingly bomb dropped by Nazi
rounding environment was Germany exploded near
like in 13th century Lon- exploring London centu- Nelson’s Column, a fa-
don,” explained Feinberg. mous landmark and iconic
“So for example, now you part of the victory celebra-
see a Starbucks and now tions held five years later to
you see the tower as it mark the end of the war in
looks today with the moat Europe.
Durability tests: Samsung phones survive water, not falls
The Associated Press day, also found that Sam- In this Feb. 22, 2016 file photo, a waterproof Samsung Galaxy dropped face down on
NEW YORK (AP) — You sung’s new phones are S7 Edge mobile phone is submersed in water during a preview a sidewalk. The Samsung
can dunk Samsung’s new more prone to breaking of Samsung’s flagship store, Samsung 837, in New York’s Meat- phones also cracked when
smartphones in water, but than the iPhone 6S, which packing District. dropped on their corners,
don’t drop them on a side- survived 30 seconds in a while the iPhones had only
walk, a new study finds. tumbling test chamber, Associated Press cosmetic damage, ac-
SquareTrade, a company similar to a dryer without cording to SquareTrade.
that offers extended-pro- heat. The test is meant Samsung Electronics in
tection plans for gadgets, to mimic repeated drops Seoul, South Korea would
said the Galaxy S7 and S7 phones often face. Both not comment on the study.
Edge still functioned after Samsung models had mi- The new Samsung phones
being submerged in wa- nor cracks on the screens came out Friday. They’re
ter for 30 minutes. Audio and significant damage not designed to be used
was “permanently muffled to their backs. The iPhone underwater — the touch
and distorted” after the 6S Plus, a larger version of screens don’t function until
dunking, but the Samsung the 6S, did worse. Its screen dry — but Samsung promis-
phones still outlasted Ap- completely shattered in es that the phones can still
ple’s iPhones in Square- SquareTrade’s tests. work after spending up to
Trade’s water tests. The screens of all four 30 minutes in up to five feet
The study, released Mon- phones cracked when of water.
