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The purpose of the project is to connect visitors to Stratford with digitised content exploiting the archives stored and treasured by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Because there are an estimated four million visitors to Stratford annually it’s hoped that this project will raise the awareness of as many of these visitors as possible as to that which the project team’s been working.

According to the Trust’s research, of those who have visit, the market is classified as follows: ABC1, 50% international and 50% domestic. 50% are groups and the other 50% are families or individuals. The top visitor markets are USA, France and from Japan. Visitors from the UK constitute the second biggest number after those from America. Given that those from the USA are reckoned to be among the earliest adopters of new technology it is hoped that the creation of the application will appeal to this market and therefore increase its awareness.

The Project Team consists of Coventry University’s Serious Games Institute, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, The Danwood Group and Hewlett-Packard. The intention of this amalgam is to create a project that will fulfil the brief discussed above.

A digital application has been created by the Serious Games Institute that will allow visitors to potentially download onto their mobile phone devices. Those who do will then be taken on a journey by one of a number of characters through Shakespeare’s Stratford and access much of the content of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. The intention is that, using augmented reality, visitors will be able to understand more of the historic significance behind areas of Stratford, buildings and the Trust’s content.

At each point of the journey within it the application will link to the relevant archive documents. These have been digitally scanned, catalogued and linked using existing technology and some provided by the Project Team. Visitors will then have the opportunity to print the aforementioned content from dedicated printers on site.

It is the intention of the Project Team that this business model created can be licensed as could the linked mobile and augmented reality, archive technology.