That's why Epstein's Boston-based company, Untravel Media (www.untravelmedia.com/), makes podcasts with Arlington-based Spy Pond Productions: to bring a city's landmarks to life with rich, historical anecdotes.
"We see site-based travel stories as a way to deepen the exchange [with new people and places]," said Epstein.
Untravel this spring will release its most ambitious project yet. Called "Murder@Harvard Mobile" (www.parkmanmurder.com), it is an audio and video tour detailing the notorious 19th-century slaying of a wealthy Bostonian, George Parkman. Real-life relics, a skull here, a weapon there, will be placed in stores and other buildings on Beacon Hill, serving as waypoints for the tour.
Call it the immersive travelscape: Globe trekkers wielding gadgets that augment what their senses are already telling them about their new environments. Whether you are passing by a sidewalk barbecue in Wuhan, or meeting a stranger on the stoop of a Hell's Kitchen brownstone, your phone will tell you more than you ever thought possible about that specific neighborhood, its people, and its cuisine.
In the future, traveling with technology could also mean carrying cheap "single-use" devices that pinpoint your location on the globe, and pipe up with information about that particular spot.
Cambridge Consultants, a technology company based in the United Kingdom, has developed two single-use concepts based on its CatchNet device platform. One of them, called Guiding Star, combines a small, pen-shaped gadget with a GPS receiver, connected wirelessly to an Internet travel guide. Think "Lonely Planet" on a stick.
Another technology, augmented reality eyewear, which superimposes recorded images onto the real world, will also add layers of experience to town and country travels. Vuzix, the 3-D eyewear-maker, last month announced a pair of glasses, the Wrap 920AV, through which you can watch videos, while continuing to see what is going on beyond the projected image.
