Tank Museum Beats The World With Augmented Reality Experience

Augmented reality technology means visitors to the tank museum can view the German Stürmtiger tank.
Augmented reality technology means visitors to the tank museum can view the German Stürmtiger tank.

The Tank Museum in Bovington, Dorset, is believed to be the first attraction in the world to utilise the latest augmented reality technology.

Software experts from Wargaming, producers of the hit free-to-play video game ‘World of Tanks’, have created the interactive experience.

The cutting edge technology allows visitors to explore in detail a rare German Stürmtiger tank.

Using a specially-adapted and supplied smartphone, visitors can view every detail of the ‘bunker buster’.

It is part of the museum’s Tiger Collection exhibition at which five of the World War Two German tanks have come together for the first ever time.

With the Stürmtiger experience, there are now six of the Tigers on display in the exhibition sponsored by World of Tanks.

Visitors use the adapted phone and hold it up to what is an empty space, but the technology reveals the tank.

Users can move around it, look inside and explore every detail of this most mysterious member of the Tiger tank family.

Augmented reality technology means visitors to the tank museum can view the German Stürmtiger tank.
Augmented reality technology means visitors to the tank museum can view the German Stürmtiger tank.

Just 19 of these tanks were built and they fired massive 380mm rocket-propelled rounds.

They were designed for use in urban areas and had incredibly thick armor; however, the end of the war came before they could be made in any numbers.

Museum Director Richard Smith said: “Our exhibition of the Tiger tank family had one important member missing.

“With one Tiger missing from the line-up, we turned to our sponsors at World of Tanks to provide the rare Stürmtiger digitally for our visitors to see alongside the five other Tigers in the collection – and using cutting edge interpretive technology, that’s exactly what they have done.

“This is an exciting project – not only have we been able to call on the latest technology, but we think this is the future of museum interpretation.

“The way it allows the visitor to interact with, and better understand, collections is game changing.

“I’m not aware of any other museum in the world to have taken this approach and we’re looking forward to seeing how our visitors react to it.”

The augmented reality is available to visitors from Friday 23rd June – the day before the Tankfest, which is a sell-out with 40,000 tickets sold for the two days.

The Tiger exhibition includes the museum’s own Tiger 1, its two King Tigers, and its Jagdtiger, along with the Elefant, which is back in Europe for the first time since the end of the war after being imported from the US.