Google Creative Lab
Notable Women AR
In the US, it’s been over 100 years since a woman appeared on paper currency.
Nexus Studios and Google teamed up with former U.S Treasurer Rosie Rios to launch ‘Notable Women’. The project highlights 100 American women who shaped US history, by placing their portraits where they’ve been historically left out, on US bills. The women were voted for by the American public from a collection developed by American teachers.
Notable Women consists of an AR app, developed by Nexus’ Interactive Arts team, a comprehensive website and downloadable material for educational purposes.
A small selection of featured notable women
Maya Angelou, poet and civil rights activist.
Wrote the first nonfiction best-seller by an African-American woman. She was also an actor, lecturer and civil rights activist.
Wilma Mankiller, Cherokee Chief and Native American rights activist. First female chief of the Cherokee Nation. She focused on economic development by building up the Cherokee community and preserving its traditions.
Helen Keller, author and lecturer.
The first blind and deaf person to earn a college degree and later author and lecturer. She also supported women's and labor rights.
The App
Tap ‘Get Started’ and point your camera at any denomination of US currency to trigger an AR portrait overlay. Notable Women features a tool that enables users to read individual bios, and a screen-capture tool to save and download the material.
The process of creating Notable Women required millimetric attention to detail in order to achieve seamless portrait transitions. Due to visual differences in each dollar bill denomination, 7 portraits needed to be made for each woman. This resulted in the creation of 700 portraits, each one individually designed and composed to resemble the texture of ink on a dollar bill.
Download Notable Women from App Store and Google Play.