Enhancing the Experience of Visiting Outdoor Heritage Sites Using Handheld AR

Abstract

Augmented Reality (AR) technologies are becoming mainstream, and with the support of big tech companies such as Alphabet and Apple, they are nowadays easily available. Narrowing down the niche, there is a vast research activity within the field of AR in outdoor museums and heritage sits. However, the influence of this technology over tourist behavior was not yet studied properly. This study targets the process of building an AR application which can be used as a digital guide for outdoor museums, monuments or any other type of heritage sites. The quantitative results of this study are designed to help the development of AR applications for outdoor museums. This poster presents the result of 3 different experiment scenarios: visiting the remainings of an Etruscan tomb, walking through a central market square and inspecting an intangible monument (a catholic church destroyed decades ago). We compute several parameters based on a questionnaire which targets the manipulability and the comprehensibility. Following the experiments, we propose a list of guidelines for building mobile AR (MAR) applications with a focus on cultural heritage.