Areti Damala

Bridging the gap between the digital and the physical: design and evaluation of a mobile augmented reality guide for the museum visit

Can Augmented Reality (AR) techniques inform the design and implementation of a mobile multimedia guide for the museum setting? Drawing from our experience both on previous mobile museum guides projects and in AR technology, we present a fully functional prototype of an AR-enabled mobile multimedia museum guide, designed and implemented for the Museum of Fine Arts in Rennes, France. We report on the life cycle of the prototype and the methodology employed for the AR approach as well as on the selected mixed method evaluation process; finally, the first results emerging from quantitative evaluation are discussed, supported by evidence and findings from the qualitative part of the assessment process. We conclude with lessons learned during the full circle of conception, implementation, testing and assessment of the guide.

Adaptive augmented reality for cultural heritage: ARtSENSE project

The paper presents the new concept of Adaptive Augmented Reality (A2R), employed within the context of the creation of an AR guide for the museum visit, that is being developed in the context of an EU research project. The main objective of the project is to provide a prototype that enables a personalized experience for every individual visitor by adapting to the psychological state of the visitor the content presented through an augmented reality museum guidance system.

Tailoring the Adaptive Augmented Reality (A 2 R) museum visit: Identifying Cultural Heritage professionals' motivations and needs

The paper presents the new concept of Adaptive Augmented Reality (A2R), employed within the context of the creation of an AR guide for the museum visit. The augmentations provided are not only visual but also acoustic, while the interest of the visitor is also monitored using physiological sensors, so that the multimedia content delivered to the visitors see-through AR display with which she can interact through gesture interaction can be adapted according to her engagement and interests. A theoretical framework is provided together with an overview of the system architecture. This contribution focuses on the interdisciplinary, collaborative and UC-informed methodology employed for the identification and elicitation of the motivations and needs of the Cultural Heritage professionals as to the potential of the A2R approach for the museum visit.

meSch - material encounters with digital cultural heritage

The meSch project, Material Encounters with Digital Cultural Heritage, has the goal of designing, developing and deploying tools for the creation of tangible interactives that will connect the physical experience of heritage with relevant digital cross-media information in novel ways. A wealth of digital cultural heritage content is available in on-line repositories and archives, but is used in a limited way and through rather static modes of delivery. meSch enables heritage professionals to create physical artifacts enriched by digital content without the need for specialised technical knowledge. The approach adopted is grounded on principles of co-design, the broad participation of designers, developers and stakeholders into the process, and on a Do-It-Yourself philosophy to making and experimentation. The ambition of the project is to enable the creation of an open community of cultural heritage institutions driving and sharing a new generation of physical/digital museum interactives.

Exploring the Affective Museum Visiting Experience: Adaptive Augmented Reality (A2R) and Cultural Heritage

Providing engaging interpretation resources for museum and gallery visitors may have a great impact on the overall museum visiting experience all by assisting museums in maintaining long-term relationships with their public. This paper focuses on the ways through which AR can be employed in museum and gallery settings as an interpretation medium. It also introduces a new generation of multimedia guides for the museum visit inspired by the concept of Adaptive Augmented Reality (A2R). Adaptive Augmented Reality (A2R) provides visual and acoustic augmentations that come to supplement the artefact or site viewed by a museum or gallery visitor and monitors the cognitive and affective impact of all interactions of the museum visitor both with the physical and the digital environment. The ultimate goal is to make every museum visit unique, by tailoring an Augmented Reality visit with contents that are susceptible to increase the affective impact of the augmented museum visiting experience and hence encourage int...

Exploring contemporary painting through spatial annotations using RFID tags

One of the least explored RFID application-domains concerns the areas of entertainment and culture. This paper proposes a mobile application -conceived for and with a contemporary artist- allowing the spatial annotation of paintings and the delivery of multimedia related interpretation material to the concerned public, through the combined use of RFID tags and NFC (Near Field Communication) mobile phones, serving as delivery platforms. The paper reports on the design and implementation of the application as well as on the results of a first, proof-of-concept, evaluation.

Experimenting with Sound Immersion in an Arts and Crafts Museum

Technical museums are goods targets for experimenting with sound immersion and soundscape authoring. This paper presents an immersive sound system emitting audio content. Experimentations were conducted with a wired, proof-of-concept prototype and two wireless devices. Our system takes into consideration the position of museum visitors as well as their orientation and visual vector. In contrast with other approaches, tracking and rendering are executed locally and in real-time by the visitors device.

Cultural heritage communities: technologies and challenges

This workshop will explore the role of technology supporting and mediating cultural heritage practices for both professional communities (cultural heritage professionals, heritage institutions, etc.) and civic communities (citizen-led heritage initiatives, heritage volunteers, personal and community identified heritage, heritage crowdsourcing, etc.). The workshop - which aims to attract participants from heritage studies and practice, community engagement, digital humanities and human-centred computing - will discuss challenges and future opportunities for technology use and for design and participatory processes in the context of various heritage communities, and the role of different stakeholders in engaging with heritage in a technologically-mediated way.

PLUG, Université Paris Nuit: a design reiteration of a mobile museum edutainment application

What is the potential of mobile edutainment applications introduced in the informal learning environment of the museum setting? This short paper proposes to shed light on this issue by presenting a design reiteration of a mobile edutainment application designed for a European Science Museum, by particularly insisting on the ways the design, implementation and evaluation of a first mobile serious game, informed the conception of a second game version. The latter has already been proposed to the museum public in four demonstration sessions that provided some first feedback on the acceptance and usability of the proposed mobile application.

Edutainment Games for Mobile Multimedia Museum Guidance Systems: A Classification Approach

This paper proposes a first sketch on the state of the art regarding interactive edutainment games delivered through mobile multimedia museum guidance systems used in the context of a cultural visit. The goal is to identify current practices but also potential functional requirements, through the introduction of a first set of classification criteria emerging from a literature review of representative projects. The issue of related evaluation practices is also discussed.