Riga Motormuseum opened its doors in 2016, and as a brand new establishment set out to stand out for its adventurous approach to museum experiences. When exploring its exhibits, visitors are bound to interact with exhibitions through exploring operable models, touchscreen monitors, and using virtual and augmented reality.
Overly provided the museum with a custom augmented reality solution that recognizes 3D objects rather than the usual marker-based cues in 2D. The AR offer allows visitors to learn about the build of an old school car. Five tablets are located around the vehicle through which guests can reveal various layers and learn how the car looked back in the day, how the motor, gearbox, and differential work.
The augmented reality feature aims to educate visitors about how various parts of the car operate. As the object has been 3D scanned, people do not have to view the exhibit against an animation. Instead, augmented reality overlays the real-life car model precisely so people can look at the given part 1:1 and see how it comes to life. This feature is excellent for individual explorers, who do not choose guided tours but yet want to learn about their subject of interest in depth.
The project came to life when the AR technology was way behind what it is today, and at a time, there wasn’t a simple template to use for bringing a 3D object to life and equipping it with precise AR overlay. To achieve the precision necessary, our team used 3D laser scanning, lifting the car off the ground so we could get imagery from every angle. Four years later, the exhibit is still current, and such solutions are still challenging to create and not common around the globe.
