A San Antonio-based startup turned immersive content company is making a big impact in the industry of augmented reality (AR) and extended reality (XR).

Experience Real History, founded in 2017, recently changed its name to QuantumERA, a firm that has quickly gained notice for its growing product line. The company creates content for businesses and consumers with a focus on historical guidance and preservation, brand engagement, adventure play, or licensing opportunities. The products use fact-based content to provide the user with more layers of interactive, complex historical engagement. Basically, it turns history into (virtual) reality.

“Growth was an imminent path for Experience Real History,” Lane Traylor, CEO of QuantumERA, says in a news release. “With such an intense demand for the type of mixed reality experiences we create, we knew that history was just the beginning. QuantumERA brings a totality to the landscape of what we can conceive. The options are limitless.”

Mixed reality is essentially a version of augmented reality in that it supplements a real-world setting with virtual personalities and objects so the user feels like they are in the same place as the virtual object or personality.

Michael McGar, the company’s president of design and business development, tells CultureMap that being able to virtually stand somewhere and fully learn a site’s history “changes your perspective.”

The company has built up strategic relationships with local organizations, such as the Witte Museum, and national attractions, including the Gettysburg Museum, Seminary Ridge Museum, and the International Society of Technology in Education, to create various mixed reality experiences.

Now, QuantumERA plans to collaborate with more museums as well as retailers and educators to create a wider variety of mixed reality storytelling experiences.

QuantumERA is debuting two products this month, A Nation Divided: Gettysburg, an app exploring the events of the pivotal Civic War battle, and Passport to Philadelphia, an AR tour that gives “visitors” a chance to further dive into the evolution of the city’s history and culture.

“It’s like a scavenger hunt in Philadelphia,” McGar explains. “You may not have any idea of the famous band that had its first gig at the place you’re standing in. Or you might be in the same place Benjamin Franklin was in. It gives you a better understanding of what’s around you.”

Inside the tech world, QuantumERA is also garnering attention. The company was recently recognized with a 2019 Media Excellence Award for Excellence in Augmented and Virtual Reality for its Alamo Edition suite of apps and interactive products.

McGar said he and his colleagues are proud to base QuantumERA in San Antonio, whose expanding technology community includes AR/VR/XR businesses, such as The IMG Studio, Geomedia, Maverick, and Merge.

“San Antonio isn’t particularly known for its technology industry, but it’s attracting a significant number of people who want to change that image. The more people, the better,” McGar added.