We help bring a little Christmas joy to Ipswich. With Urban XR, we built Cornhill Christmas, a free outdoor AR app in which Sammy the reindeer appears on the Town Hall steps and Santa's sleigh flies over the rooftops of The Cornhill – placed against the real buildings, on visitors' own phones.
Santa's sleigh over The Cornhill, through a phone held up in the square and full screen in the app
2ndChristmas run, re-commissioned for 2023
The challenge
Christmas 2021 was another Christmas in the shadow of COVID, and Ipswich town centre wanted new reasons for people to come in. The Cornhill, the historic square at its heart, was the place to do it.
The idea was a festive moment families could share on the phones they already carry – no special equipment, nothing to install in a busy public square. And it had to belong to The Cornhill: the characters needed to appear in particular places around the square, not float anywhere on screen.
Our approach
We built the app in Unity for iOS and Android, working with Urban XR and Eggbox Studios. GPS is too imprecise for outdoor AR, and markers don't suit a busy square, so the app uses a Visual Positioning System (Immersal): the phone's camera recognises the buildings around The Cornhill and places the content against them.
That lets the characters perform in chosen spots. Sammy the reindeer appears on the steps of the Town Hall, and Santa's sleigh flies over the rooftops trailing sparkles, staying in place as people move around the square.
The results
Cornhill Christmas launched on the App Store and Google Play for Christmas 2021, free to download and with no account to create. It only works in the square itself: open it on The Cornhill and wait for Sammy to appear.
The app came back for Christmas 2023 as Sammy the Reindeer's Christmas Adventure, part of Ipswich Borough Council's Digital Ipswich programme: a trail of clues through local shops that ends on The Cornhill, watching Sammy fly around the sky.
Technical highlights
Visual Positioning System
Immersal VPS localises the phone against the square's buildings, so no markers are needed
Cross-platform app
one Unity codebase for iOS and Android
Location-anchored content
characters and effects fixed to real positions around The Cornhill
Animated characters
Sammy the reindeer and Santa's sleigh, with real-time sparkle effects
Site-specific by design
camera-based mapping of The Cornhill, so the experience runs only in the square
Free public access
free to download, with no account or special equipment needed
Sammy the reindeer on the Town Hall steps, then leaping across the entrance in a trail of sparkles
Have a project in mind, or want to explore what’s possible? Talk to us.
Hello, I’m Lucy. What would you like to build, or what can I help you with?
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