Running Reality for tour guides
Bring the past into view.
You bring the stories. Running Reality helps your visitors see the places and people behind them. Use WALK in augmented reality on your iPad to reveal lost buildings, historical people, and the scene around your next tour stop.
Share your iPad with a small group, or give guests a QR code so they can explore on their own devices, with you guiding the conversation.
- Explore on location with AR
- Share your iPad with a small group
- Give guests QR access on their own phones
WALK for guided tours
One iPad. A shared glimpse of history.
Stand where the story happened and point your iPad at the scene. WALK in augmented reality places available historical reconstructions over the live camera view, helping visitors connect today's surroundings with another time.
- Reveal what is missing. Show a vanished house, a former street, or people in a landscape that now looks empty.
- Make it a moment in your tour. Gather a small group around your iPad, point out a detail, then look up together at the real place.
- Keep your voice at the center. Use the scene to invite questions and comparisons while you explain the people, evidence, and events.
Before, during, and after the visit
Build the experience around your story.
A battlefield, a town center, or a place where little remains can hold more than visitors can see. Choose a few moments that make your route more memorable.
Prepare with the free tools
Explore the historical content and fly over your route in 3D for free. Compare dates, inspect the available detail, and choose the stops where a ground-level view will add the most to your interpretation.
Put people in the picture
History is people. Where interactive historical people are available, use TALK to explore a perspective with your group, then connect that conversation to your own explanation and the cited evidence.
Add the history you know
Your local knowledge can help fill gaps. Add research and historical detail to the shared world, or work with a site and local partners on a larger reconstruction. Content can grow as research and resources become available.
The practical details.
With Individual Premium, guests look at the guide's iPad. One shared screen works well for a small group.
With Business access, you receive an access key to share through a QR code. Guests open the visitor experience on their own phones using that access, without buying their own Individual Premium subscriptions. Explore Business access.
Open Running Reality at each stop, select your historical date, zoom in, and choose WALK. Turn the VR switch off for AR and allow camera, location, and motion access when asked. Check your connection, battery, and screen visibility along the route.
GPS and compass readings are approximate, so rehearse the view on location and compare it with recognizable landmarks. Choose a place for the group to stop and look at the screen while you talk. Read the setup guide and GPS and compass guidance.
The amount of historical detail varies by place and date. Explore your route first to see what is available. A 2D building footprint does not always mean a full 3D reconstruction is ready.
Running Reality uses one shared historical world for 2D and 3D, with citations connecting claims to evidence. If your route needs more detail, we can discuss research, data entry, and phased content work. Grant partnerships can help a site develop the larger story, and our 3D reconstruction guidance explains the approach to evidence.
Ask them to spot what has changed, identify a building that no longer stands, or suggest a question for an interactive person. A short shared view can give them something concrete to investigate before you return to the landscape and your story.
Digital historical people can complement the storytelling and demonstrations of living historians and reenactors. Preview the available people and conversations before bringing them into your tour.
No. WALK works on a normal screen, whether guests share your iPad or use their own phones. Cardboard viewers are an optional, inexpensive way to make an individual phone experience more immersive while shading the screen from sunlight. See the benefits and setup instructions.
Make your next stop a window into history.
We would love to hear about your route and help you find the right starting point.
Talk with the Running Reality team