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Millions of Britons will be glued to TV in nine days as King Charles III is crowned in Westminster Abbey.
Until then, get an up close look at St. Edward’s Coronation Crown – or at least a convincing virtual replica of it.
a new augmented reality experience shows a digital twin of the historical object up close and combines it with your real-life environment.
With a smartphone or tablet you can see the gold, diamonds and precious stones up close and appreciate the 17th century craftsmanship.
The real St. Edward’s Crown – the historic showpiece of the Crown Jewels – was created more than 360 years ago for the coronation of Charles II.
A new augmented reality experience gives royal fans the opportunity to see the historic object up close and in your living room
It is usually on display in the Tower of London, but it was reduced in size prior to the coronation of Charles III and Camilla on May 6.
With permission from the Royal Family, British production company Atlantic Productions was able to capture a 1:1 scale digital twin of the crown for the smartphone experience.
“The eyes of the world will be on London for the coronation of Charles III,” said Anthony Geffen, CEO and creative director of Atlantic Productions.
Although the ceremony itself is almost a millennium old, the Royal Family has authorized the use of the latest technologies to deliver a 21st century coronation.
“The Royal Family has allowed an object central to the coronation to be delivered via augmented reality to any home that has access to a smartphone or tablet.”
Atlantic Productions said a digital twin of Queen Consort Camilla’s crown will be added to the experience once it’s unveiled on May 6.
Camilla’s crown will be an updated version of Queen Mary’s Crown, made in 1911 for the British Queen Mary of Teck, wife of George V.
With permission from the Royal Family, Atlantic Productions was able to capture a 1:1 scale digital twin of the crown for the smartphone experience.
The official coronation emblem appears before you tap the screen to decide where to place the digital crown
To activate the experience, all royal fans have to do visit this web page on a smartphone and tap to place the crown on a ‘non-glossy surface’.
If you’re on a desktop, you can go to the same web page to display a QR code, which you then need to scan with a smartphone.
After a few taps to select your spot, the digital version of St. Edward’s Crown appears on a velvet cushion on a table, a floor, or even in your backyard.
In a clever way, the crown seems to get smaller as you move further away from the chosen spot, just like any other real-life object.
Tapping small round icons reveals factual tidbits about the making and history of the crown, which is made of solid gold and contains over 400 precious stones.
‘St. Edward’s Crown is made of solid gold and weighs almost 5 pounds (2.07 kg),’ says the AR tool.
“It is adorned with more than 400 precious stones, including sapphires, tourmalines, topazes and amethysts, as well as 168 pearls.”
St. Edward’s Crown was created in 1661 for Charles II as a replacement for an original medieval crown that was destroyed.
The original was melted down in 1649 when Parliament abolished the monarchy during the English Civil War.
The original was thought to date from the eleventh-century royal saint, Edward the Confessor – the last Anglo-Saxon king of England.
St Edward’s Crown has been used since the 13th century to crown English and British monarchs at their coronations
The late Queen Elizabeth II, wearing the Crown of St Edward and holding the Royal Scepter and Rod of Equity, awaits the tributes of her peers following her coronation in June 1953
Next month’s historic event will see King Charles III take his seat in the coronation chair, which goes back even further – over 700 years.
The chair was commissioned by King Edward I in 1296 to contain Scotland’s coronation stone – known as the Stone of Destiny.
The Stone of Destiny, also known as the Stone of Scone, is an elongated block of sandstone said to date from the biblical Middle East.
In the run-up to the coronation, a Scottish academic has made waves by saying it is ‘doubtful’ that the one used at the coronation is the ‘original’ from the Holy Land.