Creating new ways to experience Canada’s culture, heritage and stories

Researchers at Carleton University’s digital humanities research centre—known as the Hyperlab—are exploring how interactive technologies can enhance Canadians’ experiences of where they live, work and play. The lab was established in 2008 through grants from SSHRC and the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

Brian Greenspan is the Hyperlab’s founding director. Tools being developed by his team can author new mobile applications. The tools make it possible to create new, mobile story, game and exhibit apps that can use a smartphone’s GPS or other location-based services to deliver what researchers describe as “site-specific, media-rich information.”

The Hyperlab team’s many interdisciplinary projects include developing apps that make the wealth of information in Canada’s libraries and archives accessible from any location or device, turn a stroll through Confederation Park into a quest for historical artefacts, and let visitors to Ottawa’s Lansdowne Park virtually explore the site’s past, present and potential future.