The past is dead, a foreign country where they do things differently. I experimented with augmented reality as a way to try bring me closer to experiencing what life was like in the past. Augmented reality is a way of merging the real world with virtual objects. It normally involves overlaying virtual objects onto live video feed from either a web camera, a head-worn display, or a mobile device. Many of the major technology companies (with the notable exception of Apple) have now produced such headsets—such as Google Glass or Microsoft's HoloLens. Some augmented-reality applications require the use of a physical marker to launch the experience—such as advertising interfaces that allow you to “drive” a car before buying it—whereas others work by locating your device using the embedded GPS and compass, such as Google’s worldwide roaming augmented-reality game Ingress.

The system I developed used my iPad’s GPS to pinpoint my location as I stood in the remains of a prehistoric settlement on the side of Leskernick Hill, in the middle of Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, at the extreme southwest of the United Kingdom. Leskernick Hill is the site of a Bronze Age (2500-800 B.C.) tin-mining village. Although today Cornwall is mainly a destination for summer tourism and surfers, it was, until the 19th century, one of the world’s major tin suppliers. Tin is the vital ingredient (along with copper) used to make bronze, hence the site’s importance during the Bronze Age. We know that Cornish tin was widely traded across northern Europe and the Mediterranean.

Back in 2015, and me standing on the grassy hillside where the tin-miner’s huts once stood: Once the app had my location, I was able to hold up the iPad and look through the video screen. Using a mixture of the Unity3D gaming engine and Vuforia’s augmented reality technology, the app overlaid reconstructions of the houses in their correct location and perspective relative to where I was standing. As I turned, the virtual houses updated their position and I could see the whole village.

Seeing a reconstruction of the village that can be physically explored when you are standing in the real location is a visceral experience and, for me, comes pretty close to a time machine. However, most current augmented reality technology is almost entirely based around the visual experience to the detriment of the other senses. I wanted as many of these other senses to play a part in my complete experience, if possible. So I included aural augmented reality in the form of a pair of AfterShokz bone-conducting headphones that played 3-D geo-located sounds as I walked around the site—such as the murmured conversation taking place in a hut (occluded by the virtual walls, and using freely downloadable sound effects), and the crackling of the hearth fire. By using bone-conducting headphones that don’t obstruct the ear canals, I could still hear the real world: the sounds of the birds, the sheep in the distance, and wind in the trees. I also developed what I'm calling Dead Man’s Nose, built using an Ardunio microcontroller and a set of small computer fans each with its own specific phial of historical odor (chosen from the plethora of wonderful and weird smells available at this online fragrance shop). The device is worn around the neck and the associated app is programmed to produce a specific smell depending on your geographic location, with a fan that gently wafts it in the direction of your face. (As the Dead Man’s Nose is still in a prototype phase, the pre-emptive whirring of the fans when a smell was about to be wafted was a little anachronistic for the Bronze Age—but the effect the aroma had on me was no less powerful for that.) So now I not only saw the houses, but I heard the muffled conversations and I even smelled the fires and the cooking meat inside.