Development and Evaluation of an Outdoor Multisensory AR System for Cultural Heritage

Abstract

Enhancing tourist visits to cultural heritage sites by making use of mobile augmented reality has been a tendency in the last few years, presenting mainly audiovisual experiences. However, these explorations using only visuals and sounds, or narratives, do not allow users to be presented with, for example, a particular smell that can be important to feel engaged or to better understand the history of the site. This paper pursues the goal of creating an experience that puts the user in a scene planned to evoke several stimuli with SensiMAR prototype-a Multisensory Augmented Reality system that aims to be used in cultural heritage outdoors. When using SensiMAR, the user will be involved with visual reconstructions, surrounded by the soundscape of ancient times, and is exposed to a particular smell very common that time. Given the novelty of this proposal, ascertaining the usability of such a system was raised as a foremost demand. Thus, in addition to its development and implementation specifications, an experimental study was conducted to evaluate the usability of the system in end-users' perspective. The results obtained from random visitors of an archaeological site were analysed according to their sex, age, previous experience with augmented reality technology, and provided condition-audiovisual condition, and multisensory condition, with visual, audio, and smell stimuli. Results were collected from a total of 67 participants and show that this multisensory prototype achieved good usability results across all groups. No statistically differences were found, demonstrating good usability of the SensiMAR system regardless of their sex, age, previous experience with the technology or provided condition. INDEX TERMS Mobile Augmented Reality, Multisensory in Cultural Heritage, Usability of Multisensory AR Outdoors I. INTRODUCTION L ITERATURE supports the use of augmented reality (AR) for enhancing visitors' experiences in cultural heritage (CH) contexts for multifarious reasons. It has been demonstrated to evoke feelings of pleasure and arousal [1], to promote cultural heritage [2], to increase multicultural place meaning and openness to other cultures and traditions [3], to enable enjoyable informal learning [4] and, in addition to these social, epistemic and educational values, many other benefits came across such as economic, experiential, cultural and historical value [5]. Among the diverse AR solutions proposed and implemented in CH contexts, many of them are found as being mobile approaches, such as in urban heritage for tourism in Dublin, Ireland [6]; in travel guides

User Evaluation of a Multi-Platform Digital Storytelling Concept for Cultural Heritage

“…For example, the researchers in [10] also emphasize the necessity of engaging professionals from multiple fields in the development of a storytelling cultural concept. Another example is that the researchers in [8] found no differences in the usability of the digital product when considering the sex of the participants, similarly to our results, but they also found no differences when considering the age, which was not the case in our study.…”

“…The authors of SensiMART [8] performed a usability study on 67 random visitors of the archaeological site. The participants were invited to explore the application (with minimal intervention from the researchers) and then fill a SUS questionnaire followed by a generic socio-demographic questionnaire.…”

“…In ref. [8], the authors describe the development and evaluation of SensiMAR, a Multisensory Augmented Reality system for outdoor cultural heritage, implemented in the Conimbriga Ruins, part of the Monographic Museum of Conimbriga National Museum (Portugal). The prototype combines visual, audio and olfactive contents.…”

“…In ref. [8], the authors evaluate an augmented reality app with olfactive extension, for an archaeological site, with 67 visitors, employing usability testing sessions, SUS questionnaires, and socio-demographic questionnaires. In ref.…”

Novel Ways of Discovering, Capturing and Experiencing Cultural Heritage: A Review of Current State-of-the-Art, Challenges and Future Directions

“…From the provider view, new business models and opportunities can be identified and initiated using novel digitisation technologies [75], which can help increase the competitiveness of the cultural site [76] with significant spillover effects on the local economy. Recent research efforts go beyond visual, sound, or narrative enhancements, to provide visitors with multisensory stimulations [77].…”