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Step back in time with the National Museum of Singapore's new Tango-enabled tour

By Marcus Wong - on 23 Apr 2017, 10:33am

Step back in time with the National Museum of Singapore's new Tango-enabled tour

Come 22nd April, a visit to the National Museum of Singapore will also offer a step back into time as the museum presents elements from its past as you walk through its present, thanks to Google’s Tango technology.

Led by volunteers, this new Tango-enabled Architectural Tour takes you to various spots in the museum, using virtual and augmented reality to show you how the museum has evolved over time. Commentary from your guides will help complete the entire experience, as they’ll share popular and untold stories of the museum.

A simple slider shows you how the museum has grown through the years.

There are currently six points of interest on the tour, though future points of interest may be added in the future. Highlights include a virtual reconstruction of the 90-feet high dome Rotunda at the main entrance as it was in the 1950s, complete with the artifacts that were on display then. For example, a marble bust of Sir Stamford Raffles and the Revere Bell. These will appear in the app, and you’ll be able to get close and even walk all around the artifacts using the provided Lenovo Phab 2 Pro mobile devices.

Being a full 360-degree experience means the virtual reconstruction extends both above and below you, so you’ll get to see what the original floor tiles of the museum looked like when you look down, and peer up into the dome of the Rotunda of the 1950s.

A life-sized recreation of the whale skeleton is definitely one of the highlights of the tour to lookout for.

The AR spots are full 360 experiences so you can look up, down or around.

Another highlight of the tour would have to be the virtual reconstruction of the 42-feet long Indian Fin whale skeleton that was originally hanging under the Glass Passage on the second floor of the museum.  This is recreated in full scale, so you can walk around and examine it in its full glory. What’s more, tap a button in the app, and the skeleton will transform back into a 'living' whale, complete with the calls of a real Indian Fin Whale.

The tour will be held on Saturdays on the 22nd April (3pm & 5pm), 29 April (2pm), 6 May (3pm & 5pm), and the 13 May (3pm & 5pm). The tour will be free, but you will have to pre-register on the National Museum of Singapore's website. Each tour will have a maximum capacity of 15 people, and will operate on a first come, first served basis. Adult supervision is required for children below the age of 10, and a minimum of five participants are required for the tour to commence.

As with the Into the Wild exhibition at the Art Science Museum, Lenovo Phab 2 Pro mobile devices with the preloaded app will be loaned to visitors for the duration of the tour, but as mentioned earlier, there will be a guide to take you through the tour.

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