"MaritimeAR is 3 month design foundations industrial research project between Immersive StoryLab, Meyouandus, LJMU and Maritime Industry stakeholders. Together they will create the foundations and underpinning focuses for a new human-centred augmented reality software platform and system aimed at the maritime sector. This project will enable a design-based, and human-centred, discovery of customer and stakeholder needs in developing such a proposition for the maritime sector, which will be engaging with wide network of Maritime expertise and stakeholders."

Any train company can get you from A to B. But where’s the fun in that? Imagine taking a train from London to Edinburgh, on the way certain landmarks come alive. A sea monster off the coast of Holy Island; A herd of Newcastle supporting TOON zebras running along the A1 near Newcastle; Viking villages in the fields around York. A few miles before the experiences you receive a notification to tell you to place your phone into the Google cardboard provided and watch out of the window. You also have the opportunity to take photos of what you can see and share them. So much technology is cold and clinical. This concept is all about imagination and seeing how you can turn a train journey into an adventure. Not only would this provide a wonderfully unexpected diversion on the journey but also a way to highlight landmarks that often go unnoticed by passengers. Many immersive projects are insular and take the viewer on a very personal journey. We are interested in how this experience can radiate out from the direct participants into the surroundings. How the excitement of direct participants will affect other family members and people in adjacent or nearby seats. We are confident that if we can create a good AR experience for one passenger, it will create a buzz within the rest of the carriage. Working with Virgin Trains East Coast this project is not only about creating a world class Augmented reality experience but also a new AR and locative media platform for trains. The "Fantasia Express" becomes a showcase of what is possible using this platform. Importantly the platform itself facilitates and simplifies the creation and distribution of other experiences specifically for trains. This flexibility means that content can be targeted to passengers and journeys and offers a variety of new commercial opportunities to train operating companies. For instance imagine an accountant travelling on their daily one-hour train journey to work and twenty minutes in they receive a notification and look out of the window to see a virtual bubble appear in a building offering a similar job. Or passing by a beautiful country house and see a bubble appear over it offering a heavily discounted weekend away.