See and hear Stonehenge as it once was with a new iPhone app Wiltshire

Submitted by Andy B on Sunday, 18 December 2011 Page Views: 4957

Country: England County: Wiltshire Type: Henge

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If you can’t get to Stonehenge to witness the Winter Solstice, software company Ribui and University of Huddersfield lecturer Dr Rupert Till have developed an iPhone app that uses advanced digital modelling techniques so you can see and hear what the site would have been like when it was first built.

The app features navigable models of all the phases of Stonehenge that are thought to have existed, including when there were bluestones in the Aubrey holes. There are also 'augmented reality' options for use at Stonehenge - you can hold the phone up and see from where you are standing what the site might have looked like in prehistory.

In the app you can stand 'virtually' in the centre of the Stone circle and look around, put in earphones and hear the echoes that come off the stones. (Dr Till says this works best in open headphones as there is no dry/direct sound, only reflections, something to be addressed in the next version). You can also virtually dig, watch the winter solstice sunset, and see info on the surrounding landscape. It also includes a model of Woodhenge.

The computer model of Stonehenge was originally created by Dr Rupert Till, a music lecturer and researcher at the University of Huddersfield, in order to carry out acoustic analysis of the site. Then his colleagues Dr Ertu Unver and Andrew Taylor, experts in 3-D modelling and design, produced a super-accurate model and multimedia files that reconstructed Stonehenge virtually.

At this point commercial software company Ribui approached the University of Huddersfield team with a plan to develop the model into an interactive iPhone app and now "The Stonehenge Experience" has been released to the public… just in time for Winter Solstice 2011.

Said Dr Till: “It is often not possible to watch the sun setting from inside Stonehenge. It is often cloudy and there are thousands of people all trying to get inside the stone circle at sunset. Also of course, half the stones at Stonehenge are missing or fallen, compared to the prehistoric version of the site. Add to this parking problems and the cold of the exposed countryside, and one might wonder if there were a warmer way to experience the Solstice at Stonehenge. Well, we may have come up with the answer!”

The Stonehenge Experience iPhone app is available in the Apple App Store and costs £1.99.

Contributor Bio for Andy B: Megalithic Portal Founding Editor.

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