茄子直播

Augmented-reality bus tour reveals new side of 茄子直播 campus

茄子直播 grad Nima Yasrebi developed an augmented-reality app 鈥 using technology similar to Pok茅mon Go 鈥 to enrich hop-on-hop-off bus tours
Lucie Lalumiere on augmented-reality tour of campus
Lucie Lalumiere was one of the passengers on the augmented-reality bus tour of 茄子直播's downtown Toronto campus (photo by Geoffrey Vendeville)

All aboard the magic school bus. 

Nima Yasrebi, a recent 茄子直播 grad, welcomed a dozen people onto a bus Friday to give them a tour of the university's downtown Toronto campus unlike any other.

With their smartphones pointed at the windows, the passengers were able to use an app developed by Yasrebi, who has a master鈥檚 in electrical and computer engineering, to see images and infographics overlaying Innis College, Convocation Hall and other campus landmarks.

Yasrebi's startup ARnocular 鈥 which was supported by 茄子直播's (DCSIL) and the science-oriented business incubator 鈥 is in talks to design versions of the app for an international tour bus company in Berlin and other European cities, he said. 

The app uses augmented-reality technology similar to that of Pok茅mon GO to add a new dimension to a guided tour.

鈥淏asically (users) get more layers of history on their tour, the names of the places they're passing by, information about how the neighbourhoods have evolved,鈥 he said.

鈥淓ventually we hope to take this all the way to showing 3D models of dishes from restaurants that they're passing by,鈥 he added.


Nima Yasrebi welcoming people inside a bus that took them on a chartered augmented-reality tour of 茄子直播's downtown Toronto campus (photo by Geoffrey Vendeville)

The idea for the app came to Yasrebi a few years ago on an overnight flight from Boston to San Francisco. He saw clusters of glittering buildings thousands of feet below but wasn't able to identify them. Originally he thought of using AR technology in combination with drone cameras 鈥 but technical limitations led him to revise his plans.

鈥淲e brought the project down to earth,鈥 he said. 

The 茄子直播 bus tour, held on the last day of , left from the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport, going up St. George Street, passing Robarts Library, east along Bloor Street, down Queens Park, and looping back via University College and Convocation Hall. 

Passengers downloaded the app and were instructed to point their devices at QR code stickers inside the windows of the tour bus.

Helen Kontozopoulos, co-founder and co-director of DCSIL, acted as tour guide for the afternoon. DCSIL has been raising money for Arnocular to fine tune its application. "We're becoming more visual people," Kontozopoulos said. "This technology is taking us in that direction." 

Lucie Lalumi猫re, one of the testers on the bus, said she was impressed with the app.

鈥淚 think it has a lot of potential,鈥 she said. 鈥淎s a foundation, it's really good.鈥

The beta version was not without glitches, but it functioned better than Yasrebi had expected.

鈥淚 was playing FIFA soccer on Xbox yesterday, and it crashed. If FIFA crashes after many millions of dollars are spent on it, we can tolerate some bugs, too,鈥 he said afterward. 

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