European Time Machine is one of six proposals that received funding in a large-scale research initiative from the European Commission. The project focus on using historical big data to design and visualise the historical development of cities across Europe. Amsterdam is one of many cities that now are following in steps of pioneers like Venice and Lausanne to develop a time machine for their city. The technology is based on advanced AI technology to enable the transformation of fragmented data from content ranging from medieval manuscripts and historical objects into historical maps and 3D reconstructions of the city in various periods. Where the goal is to develop it into useable knowledge for European industry and the society in general.

The European Commission has chosen Time Machine as one of the six proposals retained for preparing large-scale research initiatives to be strategically developed in the next decade. Time Machine foresees to design and implement advanced new digitisation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies to mine Europe's vast cultural heritage, providing fair and free access to information that will support future scientific and technological developments in Europe. The Time Machine Project, which involves FAU as well as several other institutions, will create advanced AI technologies to make sense of vast amounts of information from complex historical data sets. This will enable the transformation of fragmented data – with content ranging from medieval manuscripts and historical objects to smartphone and satellite images – into useable knowledge for industry. In essence, a large-scale computing and digitisation infrastructure will map Europe's entire social, cultural and geographical evolution.

Traveling in time has always been a dream of mankind. Imagine being able to experience ancient Rome first hand or to move back to the days of our ancestors to experience how people were living at that time. Obviously, such time travel goes well beyond our physical limitations of today. Still, despite the impossibility of real-time travel, a consortium of more than 225 European research institutions from 32 countries is planning to build a virtual Time Machine. This Time Machine is meant to be a large database that can store, interpret, and connect various kinds of historical information ranging from text and images over maps and 3D models to music and other sensory information.