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From June 2 to 24, the Fort Siloso Skywalk in Sentosa will host a trial of an Extended Reality (XR) experience.

The experience is a proof-of-concept jointly developed by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), the Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC), and the Government Technology Agency (GovTech), and is said to be the world's first outdoor 5G-enabled XR experience.

This experience lasts 20 minutes and is recommended for those aged 12 and above.

An immersive experience

The heritage-themed experience is set at Fort Siloso, a decommissioned coastal fort built to defend Singapore in World War II.

According to SDC, participants of this experience will put on XR glasses and be transported back into a fictional World War II battle.

The experience features immersive audio and visuals, along with simulated war-time commands, said SDC. Artillery guns, running soldiers, and military planes will be rendered onto the existing surroundings of Fort Siloso Skywalk.

Guests will physically move to various checkpoints, shoot down military planes, and participate in other simulated wartime activities.

SDC will take feedback from guests who participate in the trial to identify areas of improvement.

Registration for the trial was open to Sentosa Islander members, but as of May 26, all trial sessions are already fully booked, according to an SDC spokesperson.

An exciting springboard

"We hope this will encourage tourism companies to embrace innovation and create unique and memorable experiences for visitors," said Wong Ming Fai, Chief Technology Officer at STB.

Michael Ma, Assistant Chief Executive at SDC, said, "We are excited to bring on digitally-innovative experiences for our guests to try out on Sentosa."

He added:

"Such a trial is a key step in our journey to evaluate unique opportunities to enhance tourism offerings on Sentosa as we gear up for the recovery of international arrivals, minimising extensive physical infrastructure on preserved heritage sites such as Fort Siloso."

This trial is part of the 5G@Sentosa testbed, a collaboration between GovTech, SDC, and Singtel. The testbed enables public sector agencies to trial use cases involving 5G.

Kok Ping Soon, Chief Executive at GovTech, said, “The 5G@Sentosa testbed has helped demonstrate the potential of 5G technology to public agencies over the past two years, and SDC and STB’s XR trial at Fort Siloso is a particularly exciting use case that visitors to Sentosa will be able to experience."

"Going forward, the takeaways from 5G@Sentosa will also help GovTech better support the technical needs of agencies looking to adopt 5G for mainland operations, in collaboration with IMDA," he added.

Top photo via SDC

(Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the trial run of the experience runs from June to August. We have corrected this to reflect that the trial experience runs from Jun. 2-24, while it is the 5G@Sentosa testbed that runs until mid-August.)