New tech brings London’s ancient history to life

Timelooper has introduced three 360-degree virtual reality “time travel” videos that allow visitors to London to use their smartphones and virtual reality headsets to leap back in time.

Users can now experience The Medieval Times near the Tower of London, The Great Fire next to St. Paul’s Cathedral, and The Blitz from Trafalgar Square.

The videos are location-based, meaning that visitors must be at the locations to unlock the virtual reality experiences.

Once a visitor unlocks content, he or she can share the videos with friends and family members from anywhere.

Timelooper augments the existing visit experience by creating visually-rich and historically-accurate 360-degree virtual reality videos for travellers.

Commenting on the launch, the company’s CEO, Yigit Yigiter, said: “Timelooper began as my childhood dream to bring history to life in a more vivid way. Today, emerging digital technologies like virtual reality and 360-degree videos make it possible to capture and communicate history and current events, and to envision our future world, in more immersive and exciting ways.”

A member of both the MassChallenge UK accelerator programme, and the Traveltech Lab in London, Timelooper’s mission is to transport visitors in London and around the world to the most memorable moments of amazing places.

In addition, as the world changes due to political and ecological forces, Timelooper solves the growing need to preserve and digitally transmit the most significant tangible and intangible elements of our global historical and cultural heritage.

“Like London itself, which embodies both technology and tradition, Timelooper creatively blends virtual reality and history. Timelooper is really on the cutting edge of an emerging augmented reality travel sector and we see huge potential in other areas such as education. It has the potential to make a big impact, not just in London but globally,” said Martin Sharman, MassChallenge UK director of Operations.