Moscow State University Invents a Time Machine...Well Something Close Enough Anyway
A time machine in the MSU. Moscow students developed a machine that enables time travel. Thanks to the modern technologies one can not only see the landmarks of the old Moscow but experience the full immersion and even walk the XIX century street with their own feet peeking into the most shadowed corners.
Olga Solovyeva with the details.
A virtual reality headset hand and foot sensors that read her every move and a powerful computer in a backpack. The future technology is used to travel to the past. One step and you're in the 1830 Moscow. Strastnoy Monastery is bathing in sunlight with golden domes flickering in the sun and smoke coming out of the pipes. We're walking around the Monastery and even have an opportunity to enter a building and observe its interior. Here are a Russian stove and windows.
The 3D models were designed by the students of the History and Mechanics and Mathematics Faculties of the MSU. They chose Strastnoy Monastery because the archives had its blueprints, photos, and insurance information thoroughly describing its layout and adornments. The Monastery is an important landmark — the sound of its bells signified the retreat of Napoleon's army in 1812. In the 1930s, it was brutally destroyed.
Leonid Borodkin, professor of history: "Even though we used pictures and texts the immersion into the historical reality of these centuries is much deeper".
The photos and blueprints were loaded into a computer to recreate the full layout. The live space is broadcasted on the screen. VR is capable of tricking human perception. The XXI century Moscowite is walking around the dark room feeling the XIX century road under their feet.
Viktor Chertopolokhov, Mechanics and Mathematics Faculty: "When you move your hand you see it in the VR. And when you make a one-meter step you can move one meter forward in the virtual space".
In future, you would be able to touch the walls or climb the belfry feeling the wind blowing through your hair.
A quiet day in the center of 1830 Moscow. The novices of Strastnoy Monastery made a garden in the courtyard. They are growing pumpkins. 100 years after, the Strastnaya square became Pushkinskaya. And during the reconstruction of Tverskaya Street in 1930 Gorky Street at that time the Monastery was destroyed. Buildings, bridges, and statues began to move. In the 1950s, Pushkin crossed the street turned his face to the Gorky Street and took the place of the belfry. The Rossiya Cinema was built behind the statue. The square changed beyond recognition. Only photos and virtual reality models have preserved the 200-year-old layout. Scientists plan to recreate the layout of several other landmarks for example, the Merchant-era Zaryadye Park.
Olga Solovyeva, Ivan Kharitonov Ilya Kuzmin, Dmitry Timofeyev and Yana Novikova Vesti.