STEM Energy Park AR Demonstrator

Bringing Tyseley Energy Park's ambitious goals to life

Tyseley is a mixed-use district of Birmingham which houses a mix of residential and industrial properties.

Tyseley Energy Park is a colossal undertaking aiming to create a healthier Birmingham through low and zero carbon power, transport, waste and recycling solutions, as well as influencing policy decisions for the local area.

To help visualise the goals of the TEP, we were tasked with creating a smart augmented reality demonstrator allowing an overview of the site and upcoming changes made to it. It is designed to facilitate conversations and planning for the area, as well as being a useful and engaging educational tool.

Using drones to recreate the Tyseley district in 3D

We used high-resolution drones to photograph the area from as many angles as possible and recreate it in 3D. Editing and compositing together thousands of drone photographs meant we could recreate the Tyseley Energy Park in stunning detail, including roads, rivers, homes, businesses, parks and more.

Bringing the demonstrator to life

Tyseley is a busy area combining homes, businesses and industry in a complex web. To improve efficiency and the environment, the TEP project is using every resource at hand, from the canals to waste resources and even rubbish from homes, to create better eco outcomes. To help demonstrate this, we added animated elements to the 3D site – canal boats, electric buses, skips and bin lorries.

Creating the user experience

We brought the Tyseley Energy Park to life with animations – boats, cars, buses and more animated to move around the space just like in real life. We created a custom marker to allow users to interact with the AR content in a real-world space on an iPad, encouraging them to move around, get up close and play to discover key facts about how TEP is heading towards a lower-carbon future.