UNSW Green Trail

The UNSW Green Trail app is an interactive audio tour that describes some of the indigenous plants that can be found on The University of New South Wales (UNSW), Kensington campus. When you visit with your GPS-enabled iOS device, the app will help you locate different indigenous bush foods or other plants of interest around the campus. 
 
Audio commentary describes most of the plants and their uses. A map showing the region where the species is found in Australia and text descriptions are also presented. One or two photos are available to help you distinguish some of the plants that are surrounded by others. An image gallery allows you to swipe though the photos or zoom to show a full screen view.
 
The app can show your location on a campus map indicating where the plants are found. You can also use the Live View function to see an augmented reality view. This superimposes the approximate direction and distance of plant species over the forward facing camera view. To make this work, you select the map tab and move the device from a horizontal to vertical position. Of course, you need a device with a camera!
 
For those not on campus or don’t have location services enabled, you can still listen to the commentary and interact with the content. Live view simulates you being on campus if you aren’t so you can play with the augmented reality experience. If your device doesn’t connect to the Internet, you won’t be able to download the map but everything else works.
 
This app showcases one of the initiatives we’re taking at UNSW to promote and practise environmental sustainability, starting with our extensive native gardens. The concept started as a student podcast project in Environmental Sciences and was prototyped as a student thesis project in the Human Computer Interaction Laboratory / School of Computer Science and Engineering (cse). With the support of  UNSW Sustainability, Green Trails was polished up into this universal app for your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch.
 
So download the Green Trails app, grab your iOS device, come to UNSW and take the tour!