De Montfort University creates virtual Roman Leicester app

The app includes a virtual tour of the city's Roman Baths

A virtual Roman Leicester has been created which allows users to wander the city's streets while viewing its ancient buildings.

The augmented reality app was made by students and staff at De Montfort University working with historians.

Users of the freely available software stand on a Leicester street, point a tablet computer at a building and see what stood there in Roman times.

Developers hope to make versions for other cities and periods of history.

Nick Higgett, who led the project, said: "The app acts like a window into the past and rather than stuffy text books it almost takes you back there to see what Roman Leicester was like."

City landmarks are shown as they might have appeared in Roman times

Mr Higgett and his team worked with historians from the Jewry Wall Museum - site of the former Roman baths - and experts from the University of Leicester, including Richard Buckley, who led the Richard III dig.

As users walk the streets of modern-day Leicester, the app will alert them that an important building once stood here in Ratae Corieltauvorum - Roman Leicester.

They then point the tablet towards the site and it will show the ancient monument in a 3D reproduction.

It includes a temple, now underneath a hotel, and a villa beneath the John Lewis car park, as well as the complete baths, which is now part of the Jewry Wall museum.

Staff from the Jewry Wall Museum are involved in the project