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Big Ben Brought Back To Life Through Snapchat AR Lens (gizmodo.co.uk)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: It's not a great time to visit the UK as a tourist. Besides all the Brexit nonsense and the December weather, one of our greatest tourist spots is under scaffolding and silent. Poor old Big Ben (and its Elizabeth Tower) are undergoing refurbishment at the moment, so there's not much to see if you want to snap a photo of the famous view. Snapchat's decided the way to fix this is with a Westminster-specific Snapchat Lens. When you activate the lens and point the Snap camera at the tower, the scaffolding peels back and Large Benjamin is there in all his glory again. Eitan Pilipski, VP of the Snap Camera Platform, said in a statement: "We are thrilled to unwrap Big Ben for our Snapchat community in London. This holiday, we wanted to showcase the imaginative power of Snap's Augmented Reality experiences by deconstructing the scaffolding around Big Ben -- at least for a few special moments. We believe that every great AR experience reveals new possibilities. Our goal was to bring together the most cutting edge mapping and imaging technologies to create the kind of unique, location-specific experience that only Snap -- and perhaps Father Christmas -- can deliver."

29 comments

  1. Re: Meanwhile, the Brexit... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    At least it solves a real problem. People want to see Big Ben for the very short period of time they are in London. Of course, by the time most people get to London Big Ben will be finished.

  2. Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    coz the Steelers' offense has been a dumpster fire for weeks now with his corpse playing qb.

  3. Re: Meanwhile, the Brexit... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "People want to see Big Ben for the very short period of time they are in London" - before it becomes Londongrad and they need travel papers to visit from Europe.

  4. Re: Meanwhile, the Brexit... by PPH · · Score: 1

    before it becomes Londongrad

    Or the Elizabeth Tower is remodeled as a minaret and the bell is replaced with a muezzin.

    --
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  5. Wow, that's pretty impressive... by hey! · · Score: 1

    Considering that "Big Ben" is actually the name of one of the Elizabeth Tower Clock's components: the largest of its five bells. Since this is inside the tower, that filter gives your phone the power to see through limestone.

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    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    1. Re:Wow, that's pretty impressive... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, the name applies to both the clock tower and the bell.

      Big Ben
      PROPER NOUN
      The great clock tower of the Houses of Parliament in London and its bell.

    2. Re:Wow, that's pretty impressive... by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Sigh, your pedantry has been noted and filed in the big bin where it belongs.

      "Big Ben" is commonly used to refer to the tower just as much as the bells themselves. Hell type Big Ben into Wikipedia you not only get a picture of the tower first, but this declaration that it's commonly used to refer to multiple things as the first line on the Wiki.

      Or maybe you prefer a more legitimate reference like the UK Parliament's page: https://www.parliament.uk/bigb...
      First line: "The name Big Ben is often used to describe the tower, the clock and the bell but the name was first given to the Great Bell."

    3. Re:Wow, that's pretty impressive... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uh, the tower is called Big Ben by everyone who lives in England. But it doesn't surprise me that an American would talk about shit he doesn't understand.

    4. Re:Wow, that's pretty impressive... by hey! · · Score: 1

      It's "Elizabeth Tower".

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      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  6. Re: Meanwhile, the Brexit... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But how would we know, as according to Foxy Friends that's a no-go-zone? It's far too dangerous to go to England now that Neil Degrasse Tyson converted to ISIS. (I assume, never actually been outside of west Texas)

  7. "Brexit nonsense" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    Found the globalist.

    1. Re:"Brexit nonsense" by serviscope_minor · · Score: 2

      Well you just managed to successfully define "globalist" as "someone who isn't an utter fuckwit".

      Here's the thing. I've engaged a few Brexiteers in debate. Every single one of them had been both ignorant of the facts, hard of reasoning and really addicted to slogans.

      The stupid thing is that the"London elites" who voted remain will be hit least hard and the poorer regions who voted leave will be utterly screwed over. Morons like you will still blame on everyone else.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    2. Re: "Brexit nonsense" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sure you did, sport.

      Outside of your imagination, what happened is you had a spastic meltdown over the incomprehensible truth that people in general are smart enough to not vote against their own best interest, no matter how hard you pout.

    3. Re: "Brexit nonsense" by serviscope_minor · · Score: 2

      Well thanks for illustrating my point about Brexiteers being ignorant of facts and hard of thinking.

      er the incomprehensible truth that people in general are smart enough to not vote against their own best interest, no matter how hard you pout.

      Truth lol. Well that's demonstrably not true. Take Wales for instance. Abandoned by successive governments since it's annexation by England in 1282. They did however get av lot of regional development funds from the EU. Now they're gong to go back to being ignored and unfunded.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    4. Re: "Brexit nonsense" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      /r/iamverysmart

    5. Re: "Brexit nonsense" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I hope Britain enjoys its Arab majority and sharia law 30 years from now.

    6. Re: "Brexit nonsense" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And we hope you finally pony up and buy yourself that education you never got, Fox Friend. School should not be a no-go-zone for you.

    7. Re: "Brexit nonsense" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So you deny that this is already the case in London? Who is the ignorant one in this exchange?

      SPOILER ALERT: It's not me.

  8. Re: Meanwhile, the Brexit... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It lets you experience being raped and murdered by a knife wielding religious fanatic in beautiful 4k.

  9. exchange rate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's not a great time to visit the UK as a tourist.

    The exchange rate from is better right now for American tourists in UK than I can ever remember during my life. Likely due to Brexit I would imagine, £1 = $1.27 , which makes it a pretty great time to visit the UK as a tourist from the US.

    1. Re:exchange rate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Brexit weakening the UK you mean to say without saying.

  10. Re: Meanwhile, the Brexit... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They should fill the basement with gunpowder like a real religious fanatic.

  11. Reality parodies the dirtiest phantasy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Must be about half a year ago, about the time Apple and Google boasted "intelligent" (smartphone) camera algorithms, leading to photos much "bigger" than what the sensor was capable of.

    In jest, I said at that time that you actually don't need the optical sensor. Just GPS and attitude, and Google should be able to find out how the scene ought to look like. OK, perhaps a bit of data fusion with some optical. because of lighting and some unexpected object (and to collect more data points for the next photograph), but that's it.

    People looked at me with blank stares.

  12. Snap a photo of the famous view? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is just as authentic:
    https://duckduckgo.com/?q=big+ben&t=lm&ia=images&iax=images

  13. Re: Meanwhile, the Brexit... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Whereas you let all of Slashdot experience your tawdry bigotry with the simple magic of the Interweb.

  14. stupid by sad_ · · Score: 1

    you have a chance to take an original picture, but no, you need to have one just like everybody else - and it's not even real!
    might just as well take one in front of a green screen and photoshop the background.

    --
    On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
  15. Not the same by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

    I finally visited England this past August, first time I've ever been out of North America (unless you include Jamaica), and I've been an anglophile for a long time. It was fantastic.
    I had no idea however that the tower was going to be *totally* covered in scaffolding when I got there, so yeah, the disappointment is real.
    Sure, you got the Tower, Tower bridge, the wibbly-wobbly bridge, St. Pauls, Trafalgar Square, and a number of other landmarks, but that is the one that really seems to say, "London", the rest of the Parliament buildings notwithstanding. And no, a snapchat filter won't cut it.
    I can use that for another reason to go back in so many years though!

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