SenseTime Creates Immersive AR Tourist Experience at Hangzhou West Lake

Shanghai – September 22, 2020 – SenseTime, a leading global artificial intelligence (AI) company, will release an augmented reality (AR) navigation feature which brings to life a series of arresting scenes for tourists as they navigate around the world-famous Hangzhou West Lake on September 27.

The AR powered feature is integrated with the app named ‘Hangzhou West Lake’ (掌上西湖) which provides extensive information and detailed tourist activities at one of China’s most popular tourist attractions, West Lake in Hangzhou.

The 1.4 km-long AR-enhanced scenic route starts from Ping Hu Qiu Yue, also known as the “Autumn Moon Over the Calm Lake” and ends at the “Yue Fei Temple”, taking visitors through the “Gushan Houshan Road”. Visitors can scan each scenic spot with the app, which fires up the AR navigation journey – from there, virtual signs emerge to guide visitors through the attractions along the route in real-time, accompanied by ambient background music. Visitors can also tap on the virtual signs on their mobile phone for each scenic spot to access the related audio guide.

In addition to navigation, another AR feature in the app creates rendered images of specific scenic spots derived from the back stories of each historical site. For example, it is recommended to visit the “Autumn Moon Over the Calm Lake” during a full moon, and especially during mid-Autumn in order to experience its charm. With the new AR feature, users can at any time of their visit, transform the lake into a mid-autumn evening scene and even add further special effects such as fireworks under a full moon or fireflies over the lake, to recreate their own unique visual experience.

The AR features within the app are powered by SenseTime’s self-developed SenseMARS, a mixed augmented reality platform. The platform boasts high-precision positioning and content enhancement technologies to realize 3D reconstructions of the key tourist spots at West Lake. By incorporating cross-platform and terminal spatial sensing algorithm and end-cloud collaborative positioning abilities, the platform provides even greater positioning accuracy than existing GPS or digital model rendering technologies. The program can also be easily customized and applied on a large scale to a variety needs and scenarios for the cultural tourism industry.

Cultural tourism has become a growing trend in recent years, creating a huge demand for innovation and new experiences in the industry. Emerging technologies such as AR and AI are taking the tourist experience to new levels. SenseTime hopes to introduce interactive elements into the industry and create immersive experiences for the tourists with its AI+AR/MR application offerings. Through the use of these technologies, SenseTime hopes to reshape the arts and cultural experience and create a more accessible and engaging environment for all.