The apps making Indian monuments more accessible

Kolkata-based Shital Ganeriwal enjoys learning astir her city's past and culture.

To get her hole of learning, she tunes into an audio app and "enjoys the places and narratives coming live astir her".

The 31-year-old is presently utilizing Wndr - an audio app started by the practice walks company, Immersive Trails - to larn astir immoderate of the oldest monuments and areas successful her hometown successful the eastbound Indian authorities of West Bengal.

Ms Ganeriwal is among respective past enthusiasts successful India who are utilizing audio apps to deepen their knowing astir the country's past. Apps similar Wndr, Augtraveler, HopOn India and Storytrails connection multimedia tours of humanities places, coupled with audio narration, to make an immersive experience.

Wndr, the brainchild of a Kolkata-based archaeologist Tathagata Neogi and linguistic anthropologist Chelsea McGill, offers 5 curated practice walks successful the city. A recording, done by specialised dependable actors, narrates the past of the country to them.

Starting May, tourists volition besides beryllium capable to undertake an augmented world circuit with 360-degree photographs.

"The inspiration for the task came from a US-based app called Detour, which is sadly nary longer available," says Mr Neogi. "We were readying to make thing akin for the Indian marketplace arsenic acold backmost arsenic 2017. It took six years of readying and fundraising to marque it happen."

Augtraveler, offers virtual multimedia tours of places successful the capital, Delhi. There's audio narration, accompanying 360 grade imagery and onscreen text.

HopOn India has 116 tours unrecorded connected its app crossed 14 cities. The app tin beryllium utilized connected carnal walks, arsenic it moves the idiosyncratic crossed a representation onscreen, tracking them done GPS and prompting them to intermission oregon determination connected arsenic needed astatine locations. There are besides virtual tours wherever audio narration is accompanied by pop-up images of the locations.

Founders of the apps accidental that the crushed for creating them was to accurately correspond India's past astatine assorted tourer spots. Many guides successful India person inaccurate cognition astir the sites, complaint hefty prices and sometimes person occupation communicating accusation owed to connection barriers.

"At Humayun's Tomb successful Delhi, galore radical were not capable to ascent the stairs to spot the interiors of the monument," says Pankaj Manchanda, laminitis of Augtraveler. He says that self-guidance devices disposable astatine monuments thin to beryllium expensive, constricted successful fig oregon are non-functional.

For Mr Neogi too, cutting down the outgo of accessing tourer places was important. So, walks connected the Wndr app are priced astatine 199 rupees ($2.5; £2) for a year's access, portion the app itself is escaped to download.

But launching these apps successful a caller marketplace similar India is challenging and idiosyncratic numbers stay low, founders say.

"Not capable radical were funny successful the stories and we had nary fund to marketplace them. So we decided to determination into spaces wherever radical travel with the intent to hear," says Shalini Bansal, co-founder of HopOn.

So galore of these apps are tying up with museums and creation galleries to assistance them digitise their exhibitions and walking tours.

Wnder and HopOn person created bundle solutions platforms that assistance museums and creation galleries digitise their visitant experience. It involves leasing retired their exertion to make apps and websites that person audio-visual accusation astir exhibits. Visitors tin scan a QR codification to entree the accusation for free.

HopOn's offerings tin beryllium recovered astatine the National Museum successful Delhi and the National Gallery of Modern Art successful Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru cities. Augtraveler has teamed up with authorities agencies and UNESCO to curate exclusive tours of World Heritage Sites successful India connected its ain app.

To guarantee that they stock close humanities information, these apps prosecute domain experts to bash the research.

"For us, the locomotion person does the probe to marque it arsenic personalised arsenic possible," says Mr Neogi. "We origin successful superior sources of information, specified the British libraries' digitised worldly including East India Ccompany's documents and paper archives. We besides enactment with communities to larn oral histories and grounds memories."

Users accidental that these apps are helping them research the cities they unrecorded successful in caller and absorbing ways.

Sreejeeta Saha, who lives successful Kolkata and uses Wndr, smiles erstwhile she talks astir the astir fascinating portion of trivia she learnt done the app:

"Fearing that the Japanese would onslaught the [city's] Victoria Memorial [during World War II] from the air, radical covered the monument with cattle dung."

Rushati Mukherjee is simply a Kolkata-based autarkic writer