iPhone App's Augmented Reality View To Restore Twin Towers In NYC's Skyline
By Alex Silverman, WCBS 880
NEW YORK (CBS Local) - What if you could take a picture of the New York skyline today, 10 years after 9/11, and see the Twin Towers where they once stood?
Brian August, a business development professional with an online video company, has gotten funding through public donations to build an app called 110 Stories to do just that.
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First the app will let you know if you're within a distance from which you could see the buildings where they had once existed.
"It uses augmented reality, which allows a computer-generated model to orient the towers and draw in the silhouette of the towers," said August. "It asks you to say something about why you felt motivated to do this. What's your story -- 110 Stories."
This has been on his mind since the towers collapsed, August told CBS New York.
"I've been fascinated with the buildings and the skyline my whole life. But obviously until ten years ago, there wasn't a reason to try and put the towers back in," said August.
He believes people will be drawn to the app so that they could remember the iconic buildings and conjure up memories of a time before 9/11.
"Things that are tied, not to what happened on 9/11, but tied to the fact that those buildings were here for 30 years before that and those of us who lived here have all of these memories that kind of have disappeared with the buildings," said August.
He has raised $25,000 and about 500 people gave money to the project on the fundraising site Kickstarter.
"I've gotten contributions from $1 to many thousands of dollars and they cut across every demographic, every age group, everything you'd want," said August, who will be making the app free. "This is really something that I feel is very important that it's free because it's a gift. This is not any kind of a money-making venture."
He hopes to have versions available for iPhone and Android in the days preceding the 9/11 anniversary.
