Echoes of The Underground
Heritage Preservation/ AR
Project Brief
Objective
The project focuses on the preservation of both tangible and intangible cultural heritage to ensure the integrity and accessibility of cultural legacies for future generations. It aims to explore innovative methodologies that balance traditional storytelling and modern technology to sustain cultural identity and historical consciousness.
Scope
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Cultural Heritage Preservation:
- Safeguard tangible artifacts and intangible cultural expressions such as traditions, rituals, and community knowledge.
- Employ conservation techniques, documentation, and legal frameworks to maintain the value and accessibility of cultural heritage.
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Digital Integration:
- Utilize digital technologies for documenting and preserving artifacts, enabling broader access and facilitating the restoration of heritage sites.
- Explore modern tools to archive and sustain personal and collective histories, ensuring cultural narratives endure in the digital era.
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Intergenerational Storytelling:
- Promote the transmission of traditions, histories, and knowledge across generations through oral narratives and ancestral practices.
- Examine storytelling as both a preservation method and an educational tool to foster empathy and cultural understanding.
Deliverables
- Develop a digital or interactive solution to document and archive cultural heritage and stories authentically.
- Create a framework or prototype that supports the integration of traditional narratives with modern technology.
- Design an accessible platform or system to facilitate community engagement and the sharing of cultural identities.
Team Members
Jingxin Zhu
Skills: Video editing, 3D modelling, Graphic and Visual design.
Roles: Leader
(Collaborative)
Ziwei Niu
Skills: Editing, Painting, Modeling.
Roles: 3D Designer (Collaborative)
Areeb Aliku
Skills: Coding, Photography, Photo Editing.
Roles: Researcher
(Collaborative)
Ruonan Wang
Skills: Editing, Product design, Video editing.
Role: Editor
(Collaborative)
The Idea
The preservation of the London Underground is quite essential in the current state of the Underground as it is ever-developing and modernized which causes parts and features of the Underground to be forgotten over time. We will focus on Baker Street (part of the Metropolitan Railway) as it was home to the launch of a revolutionary idea that reduced 90-minute journeys to just 20 minutes beneath the congested streets of London. The project would be an AR experience in Baker Street where people would be able to see relics and parts of Baker Street come to life by stepping into the old Baker Street by tapping on NFC chips spread across different parts of the station and viewing the AR models in their own devices which would open in their browsers/ 3D environments. This could be an essential step in preserving the history of the London Underground as it would teach the public more intuitively and increase the value and importance of using the Undergrounds.
Mobile Devices
NFC Chips
Emerging Techonology
Functionality
Echoes of the Underground will bring people back to the forgotten history of the underground. We will be using AR technology to make that possible. To begin our underground AR experience, users will use their own devices to tap the NFC chips located on different historical artefacts in the Baker Street station. Users will see a link pop-up on their device; by clicking the link, they will start their unique internet-free AR experience with us.
During the AR experience, users will experience what the station used to look 100 years ago and get a better understanding of how much it has changed from how these stations used to be.
Multiple NFC chips will be allocated in the station; from the station’s entrance where the experience starts, there will be a main chip that allows users to tap. Users will access the landing site of our project; thus, users will see the starting point of the experience. Also, there will be a guiding map on the page, where users can follow the guidance to complete the journey or check the nearest historical artefact surrounding them. If users miss the main tap point, they can still participate from any point from the station by simply finding an artefact and tapping the NFC chip. The user will now jump into the specific introduction page of the artefact, which allows the user to interact with the AR experience and read the historical heritage story on their own devices.
Creative and Critical Analysis
The emergence of the London Underground has written a new chapter in history. The London Underground has a history of nearly 200 years and is now in daily use. Parts of some stations are still as they were a hundred years ago, except for basic repairs. Daily, it is easy to hear people complain about the London Underground’s environment and facilities, such as noisy tracks, dirty trains, complicated lines, etc.
However, it ignores the historical story behind the London Underground. People’s definition of historical heritage usually includes ancient buildings, murals, some objects displayed in museums, etc. For Britain, the most significant historical heritage which people have neglected is the London Underground, which is still used daily. One of the biggest goals of our project is to raise awareness and remember this precious historical heritage.
In our project’s early stage, we used the observation method to gather information from the station. We started observing how many people noticed the history posters in the station and realized how low the numbers were, hardly anyone noticed and paid attention to the board. However, this is what we expected but it allowed us to reinforce the fact that the public has overlooked the London Underground as a historical heritage site.
After we had finalized the topic, we chose a quantitative method to process the project: a questionnaire. The questionnaire method allows us to gather feedback from all age groups and choose suitable technology to present our work to the public. Also, during the process, we continued to observe and ask some of the public waiting for their trains what they were doing while waiting for their trains; most of them were either listening to their music or relaxing or reading which are all activities done without internet.
Therefore, our project must be internet-free by giving the public the option of exploring our AR experience which could be a fun way to spend time during this time.
Target Audience
London Underground serves a diverse group of passengers including commuters, students, and tourists, attracting a high proportion of working-age people, but also catering for all age groups, from children to the elderly. This broad user base is echoed by the growing popularity of mobile phone usage in UK households, with smartphone user penetration expected to reach 93.7 per cent by 2025, according to Statista.
At the same time the frequency and desire to use mobile phones while travelling on transport is high, therefore reflecting the increased reliance on mobile devices in this contemporary society, and opens up a new chapter for the London Underground with the use of NFC technology combined with AR experiences, enabling passengers to explore the rich history of the Underground in a new way through their mobile phones, adding both educational and entertaining value to their daily journeys.
Engagement
1. Project Value Proposition
Innovative experience: NFC tag + AR technology, old-time London Underground, interactive experience
Educational value: historical and cultural awareness, public respect
Social engagement: cultural preservation, community awareness, public responsibility
2. Potential Benefits
Provide a unique travelling experience that increases passenger satisfaction and loyalty to the London Underground.
The project can be supported by sponsorship and funding through partners (e.g. TFL, history museums, cultural organisations).
Being a pioneer in adopting the latest technology to enhance the passenger experience, enhancing the image of the London Underground brand, which in turn enhances modernity and innovation.
3. User appeal
Wide target audience: passengers of all ages and backgrounds, from technology enthusiasts to history scholars to travellers looking for a novel experience.
Easy to access and use: With NFC technology, not only does it bypass the problem of no network, but users can trigger the AR experience without complicated operations by simply moving closer to the NFC tag, significantly lowering the barrier to use.
4. Long-term development potential
Raise people’s awareness of the protection of historical relics, attract more cooperation with educational institutions, history museums, etc., enrich the content and expand the influence.
With the development of AR and NFC technology, the experience can be continuously optimised and upgraded to keep the project advanced and attractive.
In the future, the AR content can be constantly updated and expanded to include more historical periods, events and people, and even extended to other urban metro systems.
Scalability and Growth
Scalability of Technology
- Interactive features: user comments, metro history quizzes, or user-generated content can be used as an extensible interactive element.
- Offline AR experience: localized storage, storing historical and cultural context and application logic on the user’s device, reducing reliance on the web
- Integration of Vision Pro’s image processing and recognition technology: a rich format for presenting the history and culture of the London Underground and inspiring young people to take an interest in its preservation. Features such as augmented reality tours, user-generated content, virtual reality exhibitions and interactive historical maps.
- Multi-platform support: Ensure the app is compatible with a wide range of devices and operating systems to increase scalability.
- Intelligent Update Mechanism: Regularly update cultural content stored offline to ensure users have the most up-to-date information and interactive experiences.
Scalability of Co-operation
- Local government cooperation: working with London Councils and transport authorities to ensure the legitimacy and sustainability of the project
- Cultural organizations, educational institutions, tourism partnership
- Technology Collaboration: Build relationships with technology partners such as NFC technology providers, AR/ MR development companies, etc. to get the latest technical support and ensure the app is updated and maintained
- Social media partnerships: Build user communities to encourage users to share experiences and suggestions and increase the visibility of the project
- Sponsor support: Attract corporate sponsors to increase financial sustainability
Final Output
Figma Design Demo
