The Timescope

Hat tip to McArthurweb for this link: From the McArthurwebsite:

Visitors to the ART+COM roof terrace can enjoy a fascinating insight into Berlin's past. This is made possible by a digitally augmented telescope titled the "timescope". Visitors can view the development of Tauentzienstra�e from 1904 to the present day.

The basic idea of the "timescope" is a virtual journey in time via telescope. The device contains additional controls that enable viewers to view a place in the past or future time through its eyepiece.

The "timescope" can be used for a wide range of purposes: it can be set up for use with tourist sites such as the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate or the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church for example, giving visitors the chance to get a closer view of how these locations looked in the past. The "timescope" can also be used for large-scale building projects. In such cases it can be used not only to show how a building project has progressed, but also to show how a building will look in the future. Additionally, it can be used at geological interesting sites, enabling viewers to perceive natural history visually.

When I was in my teens, my parents traveled through Europe several times and one of the big tourist attractions (to me anyway) was a Camera Obscura -- here is an entry for the one in Edinburgh which was one of the ones we visited (in operation since the 1850's) This is something similar that operates through time as well as space. Wonderful stuff! ART+COM's other projects are well worth checking out.