The Canadian Committee on Public History awarded its third annual Public History Prize to a Carleton University team for the development of the free Rideau Timescapes App at the annual meeting of the Canadian Historical Association in Victoria, B.C.
The prize went to Will Knight, project manager and PhD candidate, Department of History; James Opp, co-director of the Centre for Public History; and Anthony Whitehead, director, School of Information Technology.
“The Rideau Timescapes App is a truly collaborative project involving students from Information Technology and graduate researchers with the Centre for Public History,” said Opp. “It is a tremendous honour to be acknowledged on a national level for our efforts.”
The award recognizes work that achieves high standards of original research, scholarship and presentation; brings an innovative public history contribution to its audience; and serves as a model for future work, advancing the field of public history in Canada.
The Carleton team has given the public a new way to delve into the history of the Rideau waterway. The free app enables visitors to interact with the visual heritage of 26 lock stations along the canal. It is available for download at the Apple App Store for the iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.
App users have access to more than 700 historic photographs through a map interface. Short histories of the canal and its lock stations are available at the tap of a button. Users can also slide through time to see the changing landscape in the unique Timescape view. The app will even detect the user’s current position and jump to the nearest site.
The zoomable images can also be overlaid with contemporary scenes in real time through the phone camera, allowing users to position the historical image within the landscape and adjust the amount of transparency.
Funded in part by the Department of Canadian Heritage, the app is available in both French and English. Click here to read more about the Rideau Timescapes App. To download the app, click here.
Friday, June 7, 2013 in Grad Student Research, News
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