Augmented reality app gives you another chance to see the Azure Window

CHRIS CAMILLERI and his business partner SAMUEL SULTANA are the owners of a relatively new creative technology company – Guerrilla Ltd – which works on emerging technologies in novel applications. Their next venture has taken them to the Azure Window. F

Can you introduce yourself and your company?

I’m a developer by trade and I am a full-time employee of Halmann Vella. Guerrilla is a company started up by Sam and myself. Sam and I have been working together for over four years and most of the time we have been under constant collaboration with each other, mainly art projects.

My focus is technology while Sam’s background is in fine arts. Guerrilla became a limited liable company about a year ago, and what we work on mainly, is emerging technologies in novel applications.

What is the app?

In the simplest of terms, the app will allow anyone who visits the Azure window to have another chance to view the window, like they use to but through their phone. By holding up there phone, they will be able to see the window from different angles. This is all based on augmented reality.

What is augmented reality?

Augmented reality is like Snapchat, were a real image is virtually manipulated. This is more difficult, however, than working on a human face, where you know exactly where the eyes, nose and mouth are.

In the case of the Azure Window there is just a rock face. That is why it is so important to use visual markers. We decided to use GPS and, through trial and error estimated where the precise GPS coordinates of the Azure Window were.

With this app, when approaching the site you can whip out your phone and it automatically depicts the Azure Window in its former place. Even when you go closer or walk around it the model will always remain accurate in size and shape.

How did it all start?

We got the idea to work on the Azure Window back when we won a government grant to develop an augmented reality game with students. We were blown away with the amount of attention it got and, on the other hand by the very simplistic arguments that were being made about physically rebuilding the arch. Given we have a background in augmented reality and there was all this media attention, we thought that this would be an interesting idea. So this app became this neat little side project and really wasn’t intended for anything but giving people to chance to see the Azure window through technology.

We were expe“cting a more positive reaction from the public

Did anyone try to contact you in order to help with the project?

It lived as a side project we were working on and there was talk of funds being granted for something of the sort by the Prime Minister, before the election. The Azure Window had just fallen so we thought we’d apply what we know to recreating the arch. It turned out that we needed to learn a lot more. Learning was actually interesting and fun.

Sam and I put our own money into this, thinking that the government would grant funds for projects that would allow people to see the Azure Window again. We thought there would be a tender of some sort, or a call of applications to ‘rebuild the Azure Window.’ We said we might as well try and start preparing, thinking that the funds were meant to come in a month or so. That didn’t happen.

What has the process involved?

The process involved going to the site several times. We lost count of how many times we went up there, but we were blown away by the number of hundreds of people coming to see the site, tour buses dropping people off, and they’re just looking at nothing, at what used to be the window. There was all this interest in the Azure Window because it was gone and no one was really doing anything to preserve it. So we carried on investing our own money and we created a prototype that had addressed the key technological challenges, but we need to polish it and get it to a place where we could be proud of putting our label on it and let everyone access. Because many people would be using it we wanted it to be of reasonable quality.

We had already spent around €2,500 from our own money and figured that we needed at least a couple of thousand more. Rather than just abandoning it, we decided to turn to crowd funding and see what happens.

There have been some surprises though. There has been some misunderstanding as to what augmented reality is, and some have said they would not spend money on this. We were expecting a more positive reaction from the public. People from the government have since approached us and said they are also working on something similar and proposed that we work together, so we will see.

Why the Azure Window?

Through technology people have another chance to see the Azure Window; they have some frame of reference. My little sister never saw it so this gives her and many others the opportunity. As I said, we were surprised with the hundreds of people turning up at the site, even if there is nothing much to look at now. This was a Maltese treasure and we really just wanted to use the advancements in technology to give people another opportunity to experience this magnificent natural arch.

Will this app have to be purchased?

It’s an app that’s going to be released on Android but the intent is to make it free. It was free to go see the Azure Window, after all. This is not a money making endeavour. It wouldn’t really generate money anyway. We just want to put this out there and for it to be something the Guerrilla brand can be associated with. This is a passion project.

When will the app be launched?

We’re really hoping we get to do it. I believe in the campaign and as soon as we reach the funding target we will get cracking with it. Winter is not the best time for the app, weather wise, but fingers crossed, we’d love to be able to launch it by next year.

The crowdfunding website can be found at: http://www.zaar.com.mt/projects/azure-window/