On a busy Monday afternoon, a man stood with his phone pointed to the over-century-old State Central Library building from the opposite side of the road. He was standing over a yellow box painted on the road, drawing curious glances from motorists who whizzed past him inside Cubbon Park. Though he appeared to be clicking pictures of the structure, he was doing more than that. He was receiving information about the library — which is as much a part of the history of Cubbon Park as it is of its aesthetic appeal — as the image of the library appeared on his mobile phone.
With more people willing to read on hand-held gadgets than bury their nose in books, the State government has decided to employ a tech-savvy way of getting people interested in the “who” and “what” of the city’s iconic structures and statues— through an app.
All one has to do is look for painted yellow boxes that have started appearing on the roads inside the 194-acre Cubbon Park, stand on it and open the app “FlippAR” (AR for augmented reality and flip for flipping the way people are consuming content), which can be downloaded for free, and point the phone at the building or statue. What appears on your mobile phone is the history of the building/statue as well as details about it you may have never paid attention to.
For example, did you know that the State Central Library has Roman arch windows?
“The app uses image and object recognition. When it starts scanning the building, it initiates the camera. The image on our database is matched with the real time image and information about it is displayed,” said Vivek Jain, founder of FlippAR.
Apart from written information that pops up in English and Kannada (which was made available from Monday), the same material is also available as an audio in English.
“It will also be made available in iOS shortly,” said Mahantesh Murgod, Deputy Director, Cubbon Park.
Mr. Jain added that the yellow markings will be strategically done at 10 places inside Cubbon Park to cover, among others, Vidhana Soudha, High Court, Government Museum, and the statues inside the park. An addition that was made to the app keeping the millennials in mind is the option to upload and tinker photos, tag them and share them on social media.
The app is also expected to be extended to more places.
With more people willing to read on hand-held gadgets than bury their nose in books, the State government has decided to employ a tech-savvy way of getting people interested in the “who” and “what” of the city’s iconic structures and statues— through an app.
All one has to do is look for painted yellow boxes that have started appearing on the roads inside the 194-acre Cubbon Park, stand on it and open the app “FlippAR” (AR for augmented reality and flip for flipping the way people are consuming content), which can be downloaded for free, and point the phone at the building or statue. What appears on your mobile phone is the history of the building/statue as well as details about it you may have never paid attention to.
For example, did you know that the State Central Library has Roman arch windows?
“The app uses image and object recognition. When it starts scanning the building, it initiates the camera. The image on our database is matched with the real time image and information about it is displayed,” said Vivek Jain, founder of FlippAR.
Apart from written information that pops up in English and Kannada (which was made available from Monday), the same material is also available as an audio in English.
“It will also be made available in iOS shortly,” said Mahantesh Murgod, Deputy Director, Cubbon Park.
Mr. Jain added that the yellow markings will be strategically done at 10 places inside Cubbon Park to cover, among others, Vidhana Soudha, High Court, Government Museum, and the statues inside the park. An addition that was made to the app keeping the millennials in mind is the option to upload and tinker photos, tag them and share them on social media.
The app is also expected to be extended to more places.