UrWay AR Tourism Prototype

UrWay will also provide more information about landmarks in the user's field of view.
If a tourist sees a mountain they'd like to research or visit, they can identify it by just pointing their phone's camera.
In town or out of town, UrWay helps visitors get their bearings.
UrWay locates the user by identifying landmarks in their field of vision.
Highlight trails to keep visiting hikers and bikers on the right path.

Inspiration

Our team shares a passion for traveling and exploring the outdoors, but we began noticing a trend during our adventures. We didn’t love how much time we spent staring at a search engine on our phones instead of the beautiful, scenic views around us.

When the town of Ouray, Colorado approached DAS Labs about developing a new, cutting-edge tourism app, we had a few ideas. If a visitor could point their smartphone’s camera at their field of vision and see which businesses were open, which hiking trails were nearby, and if nearby restaurants had a waiting list, they could make decisions quickly and easily. We got to work making this dream a reality!

What it does

UrWay acts as an interactive guide for tourists. While visitors are discussing their plans for the day at their hotel or over breakfast, they can pull up UrWay to scan the area around them. The rich AR interface highlights trails for hiking and mountain biking that might otherwise be obscured from view, despite being very closeby. It also highlights points of interest, local businesses, and restaurants, so tourists can shop and explore to their heart’s content.

The immersive augmented reality experience also empowers local business owners to attract patrons in real time. Restaurants can showcase live wait times, and shops can list their hours of operation to help tourists make informed decisions for their daily activities.

How we built it

Our team of augmented reality engineers used Geospatial Creator, and in particular we utilized the new tiles feature. We added local data to ensure the app could identify real-world landmarks and businesses. Then, we tackled the challenge of an intuitive interface. We developed a variety of designs for a 3D cursor system to land on one that is intuitive for as many users as possible.

Challenges we ran into

To achieve a reliable, helpful experience for tourists, we naturally utilized Google APIs. This choice was an easy one; Google APIs provided us with access to vast, comprehensive databases of information. The local data from Google Maps that we used to overlay labels and markers into UrWay was essential to the project’s success. However, this was also the source of an unexpected roadblock in the course of development.

In May 2023, Google released an update to their APIs to be more user-friendly for developers. The AR development team at DAS Labs appreciated the way Google was considering and improving the experience for engineers, but there was one downside for the UrWay app. Large portions of the augmented reality app development needed to be redone to be compatible with the updated APIs.

The team took this challenge in stride, working tirelessly to adapt to the new API structure and ensure the app's features and functionalities remained intact.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The UrWay app for Ouray, Colorado has debuted! We invite you to visit Ouray’s tourism site ([link]https://www.visitouray.com/ouray-app) for an overview of the app. The future is bright for the app, and we look forward to reporting on the app’s usage in the future.

In addition, we have established a website for UrWay as an organization ([link]urway.tech) and we look forward to adding more destinations to our AR tourism repertoire.

What we learned

When working with local government agencies, collaboration and buy-in is paramount. This project has allowed us to tailor our approach to client relationships to account for committee-driven initiatives, which can vary significantly from those with a single decision maker.

What's next for UrWay Tourism Prototype

The UrWay AR concept could revolutionize the way tourists experience new cities, towns, trails, rural areas, and even ski resorts all over the world! We are currently seeking additional destinations that would like to empower their visitors to spend more time doing and less time planning. The UrWay app encourages spontaneity without sacrificing safety, and can help local businesses connect more directly with tourists - assisting the growth of the local economy.

Keep an eye out for UrWay coming to a destination near you!