Period scenes are being filmed around the Otago Peninsula castle this week for an interactive phone app that will allow visitors to view the rooms as they were used a century ago.
''It's been very exciting. We all grew up in Dunedin with Larnach Castle as a tourism icon and this will bring a whole new world of technology to the experience,'' Animation Research Ltd managing director Ian Taylor said yesterday.
''It brings the castle alive. You will be able to walk into an empty room and see a scene going on with people in period costumes,'' he said.
''It's one of the first things like this in the country.''
''Larnach Castle originally approached us about doing an audio tour, but we thought we could do something more interactive and they've been very forward-thinking with the idea,'' Animation Research Ltd general manager Sophie Luther said.
''They already have tour groups coming through with information guides and we wanted to give a bigger experience to the individual traveller, so they could see what it used to be like, through a video of how it was back in the day.''
Seven different scenes using staff and friends as actors are being filmed yesterday and today at the castle.
Castle owner Margaret Barker and her son, Norcombe, will also make presentations for the app.
''It will add depth to the experience. It's not repeating what's already here,'' Mr Barker said.
The app would be developed during the year and introduced next summer, Ms Luther said.
