One year ago in Vienna, the Sigmund Freud Museum invited visitors to look at the empty treatment room at Berggasse 19 and watch the famous couch come back to life through their own phones. You don’t have to download an app to experience it. From the QR code it can open as an App Clip on iOS, or an Instant App on Android, or start as WebAR in the browser. All paths launch quickly, ask for the camera in context, and when you close it nothing remains on your device. The scene places a life-size 3D model with centimeter precision exactly where the couch once stood. The effect is immediate and respectful, and it turns a powerful absence into a moment of presence.

ZAUBAR’s role began in London, where the original artifact still resides. We scanned Sigmund Freud’s real couch in London and created a faithful digital twin, optimized for fast loading on everyday devices. In Vienna, our system anchors the model to the room with high accuracy, so visitors can walk around it and feel the proportions of the space as Freud’s patients once did. A short in-experience cue provides historical context, then the couch fades again, leaving the room as the museum intends. The project is lightweight for the team on site, since content is served on the web and managed through a simple pipeline.

Engagement in the first year was the kind of result every museum hopes for. In its best month more than three thousand visitors launched the experience, and across the year a healthy five to six percent of all museum guests chose to try it. That is well above the usual two to three percent that optional digital add-ons tend to reach in traditional museums. Most telling of all, interest stayed steady month after month, a clear sign that visitors gravitate to immersive, interactive, and meaningful AR that deepens the visit.

QR scan in Freud’s room reveals the couch in AR

For the museum, the value lies in clarity and care. Visitors are not asked to install anything, yet the content lands with centimeter-grade confidence in the space, which builds trust. The experience adds a memorable beat to the tour without changing the room or the narrative choices behind it. It is accessible for first-time museum app users, yet specific enough for Freud enthusiasts who come for detail. Staff do not need to distribute devices or troubleshoot installations, and the web delivery makes updates straightforward.

A year on, the collaboration between the Sigmund Freud Museum, Freud Museum London, and ZAUBAR shows what app-free, precise AR can do for cultural heritage when the story leads and the technology stays out of the way. The couch returns for a moment, the room tells its story, and visitors leave with a deeper sense of what was lost and what endures.