International visitors and golf fans enjoying the Ryder Cup this autumn will be able to experience Caerleon’s Roman past using 21st Century Technology thanks to a collaboration between digital and historical experts at Newport’s University.
University of Wales, Newport’s Institute of Digital Learning (IDL) and South Wales Centre for Historical and Interdisciplinary Research (SWCHIR) have created a state of the art digital visitor experience showcasing the town’s roman history through smart-phones such as I-Phone or Android.
Image I: The Roman Caerleon Video Smartphone trail in action and a barcode used in the project. Users simply scan the barcode to access the information on their phone.
From this month visitors to the Roman Fortress remains in Caerleon will be able to journey back in time on a guided tour with their own personal Centurion, Flavius Rufus (pictured below). Flavius reveals insights into the daily life and customs of Isca, the Fortress of the Legion. All the information is accessed directly as video stream on visitor’s smart phones by scanning a small barcode at each location.
Launched in time for the Ryder Cup, the Roman Caerleon trail is made up of a series of 18 destinations allowing visitors a non-golf alternative to the Celtic Manor’s 18 holes. Using a simple scanner application, which can be downloaded for free, visitors will be shown around and taught the history of Caerleon through high quality video stream in their choice of Welsh or English.
The smart phone trail was produced as part of an innovative project for the People’s Collection Wales -a contemporary, dynamic and bilingual on-line experience dedicated to the history of Wales and its people funded by the Welsh Assembly Government. The People’s Collection also works with Visit Wales to enable new forms of digital tourism as well as offering exciting tools like the Caerleon trail to real life visitors and tourists.
The IDL and SWCHIR collaborated with the National Roman Legion Museum, Cadw and the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments in Wales to create these historically accurate high quality digital heritage resources.
The project and all supporting resources can be found at: http://idl.newport.ac.uk/romancaerleontrail/promo
Matt Chilcott, Development Director for Newport’s Institute of Digital Learning said: “As the world’s eyes turn to Newport for the Ryder Cup, we know that thousands of visitors will want to find out about local history but may not have time in their schedules to read a guidebook. Those visiting Caerleon for the event will be able to experience what it was like in Roman times, easily and quickly.
“With so many visitors to the area, we were keen to do something modern, creative and innovative, but building on our local history and culture. Marrying the most up to date technology with ancient history seemed to be a great way to do this.
“The project reflects the University’s ability to work with other agencies to use the latest technology to create high quality learning and tourism experiences. This project will help to raise the profile of the rich cultural heritage of the region whilst also providing excellent learning resources to schools.”
Dr Ray Howell, Director of SWCHIR said: “This has been an exciting project which has allowed us to introduce very recent research findings into our digital interpretations. It is an excellent way to offer historical and archaeological evidence to a wider audience in an accessible way.
“With they eyes of the world on the area later this month, I’m delighted that we could collaborate in order to showcase exciting local history in such an innovative way.
“While most visitors will be focusing on the 18 holes, they will no doubt want to see something different too. This project provides one of the most exciting and innovative things for our international guests to do in their time off.”
Tom Pert, Innovation Projects Manager at People’s Collection Wales added: ”The collaboration between the Institute of Digital Learning (IDL) and the South Wales Centre for Historical and Interdisciplinary Research (SWCHIR) on this project has provided a fantastic combination of academic expertise and technical know-how. In this project, and the work they have previously undertaken, the collaboration of the IDL and SWCHIR has led to the production of digital media that achieves a unique balance between excellent application of technology and expert historical research”.