A new ground-breaking virtual reality device allows travelers to look into the past at major historical sites. The VR Pole was installed at Zagreb Cathedral in Croatia to give viewers a 360-degree immersive view of the location as it would have been in the past.
The devices were installed using archival materials of Zagreb Cathedral to let people see what it looked like in 1874 before a devastating earthquake hit the city in 1880. The VR Pole was previously installed at the city’s Museum of Illusion where it offered an immersive experience, with “an illusion of stationary objects coming to life and interacting with users.”
The VR Pole outside Zagreb Cathedral was part of the company’s testing process to ensure that the poles were durable enough to survive life outdoors. The device can be used for various types of animations, from famous performances to historical events and to watch locations evolve over time.
The poles themselves cost around US$5000 to make and were a major collaborative project between the VR Pole Team and experts from the University of Zagreb. It is created through a combination of virtual reality, augmented reality and traditional 3D animation, according to Dragan Vejnovic of VR Pole.
Due to the great success of the VR Pole at both the Zagreb Cathedral and the Museum of Illusions, the Museum of Illusions plans to use them at their upcoming international locations such as in the United States and Malaysia.
