"Visitor Guide"
For at the Memorial
"Virtual Explorer"
For At Home or school
Memorial Apps
The WWI Memorial "Virtual Explorer"
For use at home or in school
Updated 03/11/2022: Release 1.8
Explore and download the App
The Doughboy Foundation is bringing the new National WWI Memorial from Washington, D.C. to schools, classrooms, dining rooms, dens, backyards, and driveways all over America with a new updated release of the award-winning Augmented Reality App called The WWI Memorial “Virtual Explorer”.
Scan or download for iOS
Scan or download for Android
What is the App?
The “Virtual Explorer” app brings a walk-around-inside-it digital 3D model of the National WWI Memorial to students at home or in school classrooms using iOS or Android smartphones and tablets, available in many K-12 schools.
Students, teachers, or any interested party can access the National WWI Memorial themselves, wherever they are, rather than needing to go to Washington, D.C. to experience and explore it. More than that, the WWI Memorial “Virtual Explorer” App is filled with interactive and experiential WWI history, including:
The Timeline Tower:
An interactive, 2-story tall 3D timeline featuring over 50 key events from WWI with images and short narratives organized up and down the tower in time order.
The Sinking of the Lusitania:
A video game-style presentation of this crucial event that was instrumental in drawing America into the global WWI conflict
.
Vehicles from WWI:
Featuring interactive 3D models of breakthrough vehicles that came out of WWI including airplanes, tanks, motorized ambulances and even a 1917 Harley Davidson motorcycle.
How WWI Changed America:
More than 50 micro-documentaries (each under 2 minutes) in 9 categories featuring leading WWI historians on social studies subjects such as the effect of WWI on Women, African Americans, Native Americans, immigrants, citizenship, propaganda, and even the 1918 flu pandemic.
The Military History of WWI:
A multi-part exploration of how America exploded from a low tier standing army of less than 130,000 to a global military powerhouse with 4.7 million men and women in uniform, and 2 million soldiers deployed overseas in just 18 months.
Stories of Service:
The tools and means to create research projects about WWI veterans from the local community or families, which can be submitted INTO the App, resulting in an auto-narrated story and images that are shared nationally with everyone who uses the app.
And More...
Award winning and recognized for innovation:
Released as an experimental app that was awarded a 2021 Communicator Award for “Best Use of Augmented Reality” by the Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts.
The completed App has been recognized as a "Cool Tool Finalist" for the 2022 EdTech Awards by the EdTech Digest in the "Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality solutions" category.
Nominee for 2022 Webby Awards in two categories by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences for "Best use of Augmented Reality" and the "Arts. Culture & Events"
FAQ's
Is my smartphone compatible with these Apps?
The WWI Memorial "Virtual Explorer" app makes use of a technology called Augmented Reality to bring a realistic experience of being at the Memorial in D.C. to users' smartphone or pad screens. It allows you to look around, walk around, see, and hear.
The Augmnented Reality technology is compatible with nearly all Apple iOS phones sold since 2015, and most of the Android phones sold since 2018. It may not work on older phones.
AR Compatinle iPhones
iPhone 12 Pro
iPhone 12 Pro Max
iPhone 12 mini
iPhone 12
iPhone 11 Pro
iPhone 11 Pro Max
iPhone 11
iPhone XS
iPhone ten s
iPhone XS Max
iPhone ten s Max
iPhone XR
Phone X
iPhone 8
iPhone 8 Plus
iPhone 7
iPhone 7 Plus
iPhone 6s
iPhone 6s Plus
iPhone SE
AR Compatible iPads and other iOS devices
iPad Pro (all models)
iPad Air (4th generation)
iPad Air (3rd generation)
iPad (5th generation or later)
iPad mini (5th generation)
iPod Touch (7th generation)
Android AR Compatible Devices (as of 7/2021)
Android devices are made by many companies under many standards. Not all of them (even some new ones) are able to run Augmented Reality Apps. This list is always changing. Click the button below for such a list.
What's new in version 1.8
WWI Memorial "Virtual Explorer" version 1.8 enhancements include:
NEW: The "Photosphere Memorial Portal", in the Viewing Platform & Reflecting Pool Area (3), is an evolving feature that will transport users to other key WWI Memorial locations. The first example is the American Cemetery at Flanders in Belgium. We will be expanding these WWI related locations as travel restrictions ease and opportunities arise. The next portal location is planned for Spring 2022 presenting the National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City.
NEW: We have transformed the WWI Memorial Model area (0) with a new feature ideal for classroom use. As you invoke the model you see a category list including: Scultures, Inscriptions, and Features. Selecting a category accesses items for that category. When an item is selected a guide arrow appears in the model. Search for it and walk over to explore it. Additional information, including the full text for all inscriptions, is included. With this you can create "search" assignments for students, "easter egg hunts" as well as enjoying the plethora of the WWI information inscribed into the Memorial. There is a lot to read.
UPDATE: In the Woodrow Wilson area (5), you can now select the full screen button to view the videos looking down rather than needing to hold up your device up to look at the AR screen. It also makes the video full screen for easier viewing.
UPDATE: For Virtual Remembrances in the Peace Fountain area (6), we have expanded the filtering system and now include over 750 Stories of Service. You can submit your OWN ancestors Story of Service by looking under the NEWS thumb button.
Are the Apps available for schools?
The WWI Memorial Virtual Explorer App is available both from the Google Play and the App Store. There are no costs and no in-game purchases required. It is suitable for any age above 12 years-old with some depictions of battles and wounded soldiers.
Shortly we will be announcing a new partnership that will make the Apps available to schools and school districts through a major K-12 portal.
WWI Memorial "Visitor Guide"
For use when visiting the WWI Memorial in D.C.
A "Visitor Guide" to the new National WWI Memorial complete with experiential "Augmented Reality" interpretive elements to take your WWI Memorial Visit to the next level.
The WWI Memorial Visitor Guide can be an integral part of your experience when you visit the new WWI Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Not only does it provide insight into the Memorial and its history, but it also provides a plethora of information about WWI in unique and interesting ways by using "Augmented Reality".
Each area has AR features that allow you to place objects, information, videos and more onto the grounds and surfaces of the memorial.
Timeline Tower
For example, in the Belvedere area, you can drop a giant timeline tower onto the ground that tells the story of WWI from 1914 through 1919 with over 50 narrated information panels.
A Soldier's Journey
There is a video you can play that tells you the story that is portrayed by the sculpture currently being created by Sculptor Sabin Howard. The 58' deep bas-relief sculpture will be the largest in the western hemisphere when it is completed and installed in 2024. Until it is installed a changing series of visuals will be put on the wall where it will be installed portraying the evolving completion of the work from initial sketch, to clay, to finished bronze.
The Vehicles of WWI
While you are on the Viewing Platform, with the giant reflecting pool, we allow you to place WWI era ambulances, motorcycles, planes, tanks, and ships out over the pool and when practical, we make them actual size to give a sense of what these craft were like.
The Military History of WWI
Moving over to the Pershing Memorial area you can place various presentation on the walls of the Memorial space and learn about how American created a nearly 5 million person military force from a tiny standing army and deployed a fighting force of 2 million to France to decisively change the course of the war in just 18 months
How WWI Changed America
At the North Lower Terrace at President Wilson's quote, you can place an augmented reality viewer on the wall and select from over 50 short videos covering all the social aspects of WWI and how the War that Changed the World completely transformed every aspect of American life.
Virtual Remembrances
And finally, and perhaps most important, on the upper terrace by the Peace Fountain is where you can use the Visitor Guide App to explore the hundreds of Stories of Service that have been submitted to us by the public over the centennial period. Everyone is invited to contribute to this archive that lets you submit your ancestor's story of service in WWI, whether military or civilian. All these stories will be accessible in both the WWI Memorial Apps, the "Visitor Guide" for those at the Memorial in D.C. AND the "Virtual Explorer" that bring the entire memorial to everyone, anywhere whether at home or in the classroom.
Download the WWI Memorial "Visitor Guide"
Search for "WWI Memorial" in your app store
Or click the link badges below
FAQ's
The WWI Memorial "Visitor Guide" App is available both from the Google Play and the App Store. There are no costs and no in-game purchases required. It is suitable for any age above 12 years-old with some depictions of battles and wounded soldiers.
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