3D virtual tour now online
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New 3D virtual tour of the whole museum is now online
Anyone can now have a 3D virtual tour of two early computing galleries at The National Museum of Computing on Bletchley Park thanks to the 3D, 360-degree photography application developed by Venue View Virtual Tours.
Viewers can move around the galleries looking at the machines and their descriptions with the added bonus of hyperlinks to video and text explanations providing further detail and history of the exhibits.
Kevin Murrell, a trustee at The National Museum of Computing, said “The virtual tour is quite incredible and a dramatic way of realising how far technology has come in a few decades. We are seeing 1950s computers with 2017 tech and getting a convincing dolls-house view of the galleries that is impossible to see in real life! It’s a marvellous tool to attract people to come to see the museum in real life - even regular visitors will see something new.”
Just like Google Street View, users can move around the galleries and zoom in on points of interest. They can read the explanations already displayed in the galleries and have the added bonus of links to further information and even videos of machines in action. At the WITCH, for example, they can click on a link to see the moment when the oldest computer in the world was rebooted after restoration in 2012.
Explaining the versatile technology behind Venue View, its managing director Keith McMahon said, “With our specialist camera, we can record any venue in 360 HD in a short space of time with no interference to anything in the scene. As well as the tours being viewable in virtual reality, the addition of infra-red cameras means we can capture a 3D version of any venue to give a life-like representation of the space from above.”
To access the 3D virtual tour, go to https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=Vz8kCqGRjQA
About Venue View Virtual Tours
Venue View Virtual Tours specialise in the creation of interactive 360 virtual tours that transport customers into any business anywhere in the world. For more information, see www.venueview.co.uk or call 01296 662002
About The National Museum of Computing
The National Museum of Computing, located on Bletchley Park, is an independent charity housing the world's largest collection of functional historic computers, including the rebuilt Colossus, the world’s first electronic computer, and the WITCH, the world's oldest working digital computer. The Museum enables visitors to follow the development of computing from the ultra-secret pioneering efforts of the 1940s through the large systems and mainframes of the 1950s, 60s and 70s, and the rise of personal computing in the 1980s and beyond.
The Museum runs a highly successful Learning Programme for schools and colleges and promotes introductions to computer coding amongst young people to inspire the next generation of computer scientists and engineers.
Sponsors of the Museum have included Bletchley Park Science and Innovation Centre, Bloomberg, CreateOnline, Ceravision, Fujitsu, InsightSoftware.com, Ocado Technology, FUZE, 4Links, Google UK, IBM, NPL, HP Labs, and BCS.
Outside the long school holidays, the whole Museum is open to the public from 12 noon - 5pm on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, spring and summer Bank Holidays and during long school holidays. The Colossus and Tunny galleries are open daily. Public and private Guided Tours are available and bookable online – see the website or the iPhone app for details. Educational and corporate group visits are available by prior arrangement.
For more information, see www.tnmoc.org and follow @tnmoc on Twitter and The National Museum of Computing on Facebook and Google+. A TNMOC iPhone App is also available from the iPhone App Store.
Media Contacts
Stephen Fleming, Palam Communications, for The National Museum of Computing
01635 299116
s.fleming@palam.co.uk