Dr Kathryn Eccles Contributes to New BBC Augmented Reality App

Pembroke Senior Research Fellow in History, Dr Kathryn Eccles, leads the Cabinet project at the Oxford Internet Institute. Cabinet is an award-winning online platform designed to encourage the use of museum collections in education.

The project aims to make collections more accessible for teaching through research and digitisation (both 2D and 3D), bringing these resources into a single intuitive and interactive interface. Through this work, the team recently made a significant contribution of 3D content to a new Augmented Reality (AR) app to accompany the BBC’s new Civilisations series.

The app allows users to view virtual 3D models of museum objects and was launched on iOS and Android to coincide with the first episode of the programme on 1st March. 

Working with the Ashmolean Museum’s Deputy Head of Education, Helen Ward, curators and study room assistants, Dr Eccles and Cabinet Research Assistant Jamie Cameron have recorded objects currently on display in the Ashmolean which are included in the collection of items accessible on the app.

Dr Eccles commented:

'We're thrilled to have been involved in this exciting project, tying into the new Civilisations series. Working with Oxford's museums and collections is a real highlight of the Cabinet project and we're delighted to have collaborated with the Ashmolean to develop these beautiful models. Cabinet started as a small pilot project in the University and has grown in so many exciting ways that we couldn't have anticipated.’

You can download the app here.
Cabinet, is being adopted into teaching across the University of Oxford, and received an OxTALENT Award in 2017.