Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems
Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems

Speicherstadt Digital

Passanten nutzen AR-Anwendung auf dem Smartphone, um Informationen über die Brooksbrücke in Hamburg via App aus dem Projekt Speicherstadt Digital zu erhalten
© Fraunhofer FOKUS

Making Hamburg's warehouse district a digital experience for everyone is the goal of the “Speicherstadt digital” project. In the project, a free app for the operating systems Android and iOS is being developed, which tells the story of Hamburg's UNESCO World Heritage Site. The scientists of Fraunhofer FOKUS are developing the augmented reality mode in the app - from the user interface, to GPS-based navigation to the sweet spot, to perspective image adjustment.

The app “Speicherstadt digital” is available for the operating systems Android and iOS. It is free of charge and vividly conveys the history of Hamburg's UNESCO World Heritage. Many historical photos bring past times of the historic Speicherstadt to life. They come, for example, from the archives of the Stiftung Historische Museen Hamburg, Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) and the Staatsarchiv. Explanatory texts and eyewitness accounts tell us more about the development of the Speicherstadt and daily life there. A map view allows a quick orientation and shows where there are places of interest. Anyone can use Augmented Reality on their own smartphone or tablet to make a direct comparison between today and then. Visitors who view their surroundings through the app will be shown historical photos and can experience what the Speicherstadt used to look like.

All AR locations in the Speicherstadt are marked in the map overview of the “Speicherstadt digital” app. When the user switches to AR mode, the display switches to the current camera view. Here he can select the AR location, to which he is then guided by GPS-based arrows. If it is close to the target, a mark on the path indicates the so-called “sweet spot”. This is the optimal viewing point of the selected image. If the user stands close to this point, the historical photo fits perfectly into the current camera image. The sensors in the mobile device, such as the electronic compass and tilt sensor, are used for both navigation and perspective adjustment of the image. In addition, transparency effects are calculated at the edges of the image so that the overall image is as seamless as possible.

“Speicherstadt digital” is initiated by the department for culture and media. In addition to Fraunhofer FOKUS, the Department of Culture and Media, Dataport, the Hamburg Historical Museums Foundation, Norddeutscher Rundfunk, Google Arts & Culture, Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA), HITec, the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW), IG Kulturquartier as well as the University of Hamburg and Wilhelm.tel are involved in the project.