War Memorial to develop AR war stories

The Australian War Memorial has teamed up with defence technology company Leidos Australia to develop a series of augmented reality experiences telling the stories of Australians at war.

The three-year collaborative project involves the development of a series of 360-degree video experiences based on key large technology objects from the memorial’s national collection.

The Australian War Memorial classifies large technology objects as any technology object that requires at least two people to handle and move, and include wheeled vehicles, artillery pieces, tracked vehicles such as tanks, aircraft and large ship components.

Augmented reality experiences developed from the project will be published on the memorial’s website and promoted through its social media channels. In future, the project is expected to be extended to the memorial’s galleries.

Experiences developed during the initial phase will feature objects from the past century of Australia’s military history, including a WWI Mark IV tank, a Lockheed Hudson Bomber from WWII, the bridge of the HMAS Sydney deployed in the First Gulf War and a Bushmaster vehicle used in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Online and digital initiatives allow the memorial to more fully interpret the Australian experience of war, connecting and engaging all Australians with our military history,” memorial director Dr Brendan Nelson said.

“We are thrilled to be working with Leidos Australia, a leader in their field, to bring these LTOs to life and to augment the physical objects with their operational histories and the associated oral histories of those who served in them.”

Image credit: ©kaninstudio/Dollar Photo Club