SENSEcity Wins the Augment the City Challenge

We’re excited to share that SENSEcity was selected as a winner of the Augment the City Challenge Fund, an R&D initiative launched in Spring 2024 with a £575,000 investment from the Belfast Region City Deal. This competition supports innovative SMEs pushing the boundaries of immersive technology to transform cultural heritage, museums, theatres, and public spaces.

SENSEcity was chosen to participate in Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the challenge, demonstrating how immersive storytelling and AR experiences can preserve and share cultural narratives in new and meaningful ways. Phase 1, we were one of ten companies awarded to develop our concept. In Phase 2, we were one of five companies to receive additional funding to further develop our proposal.

From this foundation, we developed the Belfast Memory Machine: a tactile, AI-powered AR experience designed to capture and preserve personal memories, cultural traditions, and lived experiences from the people of Belfast. By blending augmented reality with interactive storytelling tools, the project transforms everyday narratives into a dynamic and evolving archive of voices from across the city and giving these stories a place to live within the city they call home.

Explore the Belfast Memory Machine and see how we’re blending personal stories with technology to create inclusive, interactive heritage experiences: explore it here.

For more information about the challenge itself, see Smart Belfast and Tourism NI.