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Aid Organization Turns to Augmented Reality

The International Committee of the Red Cross is harnessing high technology to show the impact of war on children.

As war brutally impacts the smallest citizens of the world, the International Committee for the Red Cross sought to develop an application to tell the story using augmented reality. Credit: Shutterstock/AGorohov

The International Committee for the Red Cross’ new application, Enter the Room, uses augmented reality to give a first-person experience of war “at a family’s doorstep." Credit: Shutterstock/GaudiLab

A new smart phone application is illustrating the devastation that war has on the smallest citizens of the world. Introduced last week by the Geneva, Switzerland-based International Committee of the Red Cross, the application, called Enter the Room, uses augmented reality to create an immersive experience for users to see how conflicts impact children. The organization claims that it is the first use of augmented reality in humanitarian aid.

"Conflict has devastating impacts on communities, and especially on children. We hope the story told through this immersive app will give people new insights into the realities of war,” said Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). "It is a vivid reminder of how urban warfare destroys children’s bedrooms, their homes and—tragically—their lives."

"While Pokemon Go and Snapchat have already introduced the world to augmented reality, this is the first time augmented reality has been used to tell the story of the impact of urban conflict," said Charlotte Lindsey-Curtet, director of communications and information management at the ICRC. "With augmented reality we can create immersive experiences that showcase the humanitarian situation in a new and deeply moving way."

An independent and neutral organization that operates worldwide, the ICRC, which helps people impacted by war and armed conflict, draws its mandate from the Geneva Convention. The free application runs on the iOS platform and can be found in Apple’s App Store.