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Horizon Europe · HORIZON-CL4-2026-04-HUMAN-01

RailXR

Time Travel through European History –
with Augmented Reality

RailXR develops an open XR platform for smartglasses that brings the history of European railways to life through AI-personalised, immersive experiences – creating core technology for Virtual Worlds and Web 4.0.

Horizon Europe Innovation Action €3,500,000 36 Months DE · AT · IT
860K
Visitors/Year at Partner Sites
5
Partners in 3 EU Countries
TRL 7
Target Technology Readiness
Pablo Gonzalo Orce Jimenez with Snap Spectacles Gen 5 · Bahnpark Augsburg · Photo: Wolfgang Hauck
Pablo Gonzalo Orce Jimenez with Snap Spectacles Gen 5 · Bahnpark Augsburg · Photo: Wolfgang Hauck
What is RailXR?

Simply explained: Glasses that bring
history to life

Imagine standing in front of an old steam locomotive in a museum – and with light smart glasses you suddenly see how this vehicle travelled through war zones in 1892, how refugees were transported on it, or how Europe grew together through this technology. That is RailXR.

🥽
The Technology
Snap Spectacles are lightweight Augmented Reality glasses worn like ordinary eyewear. You see the world around you fully – and the glasses overlay digital content: historical scenes, texts, animations, maps. No isolation, no dizziness, no heavy equipment.
🤖
Artificial Intelligence
An AI system recognises who is standing before an exhibit – child, history enthusiast, tourist – and tells the story at exactly the right depth and in the right language. German, English, French or Italian. The AI works exclusively with content verified by our historians.
🚂
The Narrative
"Time Travel: Locomotives Tell European History" – from the Industrial Revolution through two World Wars, the division and reunification of Europe to freedom of movement in the Schengen Area. Railways as witness and driver of European history. Vivid, personal, scientifically grounded.
Initiator & Protagonist

Wolfgang Hauck –
Artist, Producer,
Cultural Manager

Wolfgang Hauck is an artist, producer, theatre director and cultural manager from Landsberg am Lech. Since 1982 he has worked independently as an artist, musician, photographer and project developer; since 1994 he has led the stilt theatre Die Stelzer, internationally active on four continents, and in 2014 he founded the association dieKunstBauStelle e.V. From 2007 to 2019 he was the first chairman of the Association of Independent Performing Arts Bavaria. He initiated and realised the apps BayernHistoryApp and NaziCrimesAtlas for digital history education and remembrance culture. He has been developing digital exhibitions with VR since 2020. RailXR is his most ambitious project to date: Hauck integrates Artificial Intelligence and Extended Reality as a contemporary creative tool – just as he previously used stilts, digital maps and smartphone apps as means of artistic and socio-cultural mediation. In RailXR, his socio-cultural approach, his interest in historical communication and his instinct for technological pioneering converge in a European endeavour unlike any other.

European Context

What the EU funds –
and why RailXR stands out

Horizon Europe is the world's largest research and innovation programme with a budget of €95.5 billion. RailXR was submitted under the call "Virtual Worlds and Web 4.0" (Cluster 4: Digital, Industry and Space) – one of the most strategically significant funding areas of the EU's digital agenda.

  • The EU aims to make Europe the global leader in immersive internet (Virtual Worlds / Web 4.0) – RailXR delivers a real, scalable platform for this goal.
  • All five mandatory technical areas of the call are addressed: asset creation, generative AI, immersive interaction, interoperability and Telco-Cloud-Edge architecture.
  • RailXR directly links technological innovation with societal benefit – a core objective of Horizon Europe.
  • As an Innovation Action, the project delivers concrete, market-ready results – not basic research, but deployable technology.
"No published study has so far documented the deployment of Snap Spectacles in a cultural heritage museum. RailXR will deliver the first globally documented, scientifically supervised evaluation of this technology class in the cultural sector."
This uniqueness – evidenced by the Master's thesis of Pablo Gonzalo Orce Jimenez at Hochschule Darmstadt – makes RailXR an outstanding European endeavour. Three museums in three countries, 860,000 visitors annually as evaluation environment: this combination is exceptional in the Horizon Europe landscape.
3,5 Mio €
EU-Förderung (100%)
TRL 3→7
Technology Readiness Level
The Consortium

Five Partners –
one European endeavour

RailXR combines technological excellence, scientific methodology and first-class museum partners across three EU countries.

01 · COORDINATOR
dieKunstBauStelle e.V.
www.diekunstbaustelle.de
🇩🇪 Landsberg / Augsburg
Coordinated by Wolfgang Hauck – artist, producer and cultural manager. Initiator of RailXR.
Coordination · XR platform development · Project management · Content production · Dissemination. Founded 2014. NaziCrimesAtlas: 17 staff, 100% Federal Ministry funding. Visiting lecturer THA Augsburg.
02 · USE CASE DE
Bahnpark Augsburg gGmbH
🇩🇪 Augsburg
www.bahnpark-augsburg.eu
Leading railway heritage museum in southern Germany with a significant locomotive collection. Primary development site.
Primary test laboratory · Imperial Train Empress Sisi · Orient Express · New permanent exhibition with XR · 10+ European museum contacts SE/IT/FR/PT
03 · SCIENCE
Hochschule Darmstadt – Expanded Media
🇩🇪 Darmstadt
www.h-da.de
Internationally leading programme for XR technologies. Prof. Dr. Jan Barkmann and Prof. Dr. Paul Grimm lead the scientific evaluation.
SSH integration · Visitor research · Master's thesis Gonzalo Orce (first AR prototype Spectacles) · Scientific publications · Mixed-methods evaluation
04 · USE CASE AT
Technisches Museum Wien
🇦🇹 Wien
www.technischesmuseum.at
Austria's largest technology museum. ~600,000 visitors in 2025. Federal scientific institution. DG Mag. Peter Aufreiter.
Austrian evaluation site · Statistical validation with large visitor base · Exhibition "Im Bann der Bahn" · Multiplier in the Austrian museum network
05 · USE CASE IT
Fondazione FS Italiane
🇮🇹 Roma / Pietrarsa
www.fondazionefs.it
Italy's national railway foundation. Museo Nazionale Ferroviario di Pietrarsa, Naples. 250,000+ visitors in 2025 (record). DG Luigi Cantamessa.
Italy's first railway line (1839) · Bayard AR tour already active · 400+ historic vehicles · Ministry of Culture as institutional partner · Digital signature 15.4.2026
860K
Museum visitors/year at partner sites
1.050+
Evaluated test visitors in user studies
20+
XR experiences in 4 languages
5+
Peer-reviewed publications
Open
Source release Month 30
10+
European museums in the transfer network
Project Timeline

Three Phases –
36 Months of Innovation

Phase 1 · M1–M12
Conception & Design
Visitor studies at three museum sites. Early interest study (M1–M4) establishes the empirical foundation for content production. UX design, spatial concept, technical architecture. Alpha prototype Month 12.
Phase 2 · M7–M24
Development & Production
Parallel development of XR platform and content production. AI personalisation system, Cloud-Edge infrastructure, 3D photogrammetry of historic exhibits. Beta version Month 20.
Phase 3 · M18–M36
Piloting & Evaluation
Live operation at all three museums. Scientific visitor studies with 1,050+ participants. Open-source release Month 30. Programme theory evaluation. Peer-reviewed publications by M36.
Results & Impact
🔬
Scientific
First globally documented evaluation of Snap Spectacles in the cultural heritage sector. SSH-validated evaluation framework based on Falk & Dierking.
💡
Technological
Open XR infrastructure for education, tourism and industrial training. Standardised edge APIs for the European Web 4.0 ecosystem.
🏛️
Cultural
New dramaturgy for museums: an exhibition concept that never goes out of date – because it can respond in real time to new research, anniversaries and current events.
🌍
European
European XR Heritage Network: a network of railway and technology museums in SE, IT, FR, PT and beyond as a living transfer channel.