Student to use startup funding to create augmented reality software for sightseeing

Master student Ayaz Sadykov is one of the winners of the Student Startup competition.

He is poised to receive 1 million rubles for an upcoming mobile app tasked with visualizing lost historical landmarks.

“As part of his master’s thesis, Ayaz, under my supervision, is researching modern technologies in the field of augmented reality in order to apply them to work with historical heritage. We plan that one of the objects of augmented reality will be the building of the Institute of Design and Spatial Arts, located at Levo-Bulachnaya Street 34. This is a former estate of the early 19th century, it was repeatedly rebuilt and is of great scientific and restoration interest. Thanks to augmented reality technologies, it will be possible to plunge into the past: to see the entire complex of the estate without Soviet superstructures and building layers. As part of the startup, he plans to create an excursion route consisting of several similar objects united by one theme. Perhaps this route will include objects of Kazan Federal University,” says Sadykov’s research consultant, Deputy Director of the Institute of Design an Spatial Arts Stepan Novikov.

The grant funding will immensely help in speeding up the development, and the first prototype should see light in six months, says Sadykov.

“Thanks to this application, it will be possible to see lost objects in the place where they were located. If the object exists now, then by pointing the camera at it, it will be possible to see how it looked originally. Your location and waypoints will be marked on the application map. When you arrive at the desired point in the city, a pop-up notification will appear on your phone, it will tell you which object you can see here. All you need to do is pick up your phone. After that, the camera will turn on and a three-dimensional virtual copy of the historical object will appear. It can be viewed from all sides,” comments the grant winner.

Among the plans for the city of Kazan is to create 3D models of lost wood houses and some monumental buildings, for instance, the Resurrection Cathedral of Kazan (once located at where now our Institute of Chemistry stands). After our city, other Russian and overseas cities may follow.