Evaluation of an Augmented Reality for Historical Context Experiences of 3D Restored Court Paintings

Abstract

Court painting is a traditional Korean type of painting that depicts royal events. It should be understood in the context of royal rituals and historical writing. Therefore, it is only possible for visitors of a museum with historical knowledge to interpret the content accurately. This problem is often identified in traditional paintings in other countries, and existing methods have attempted to deal with it using digital media technologies. Most methods aim to reconstruct paintings as 3D virtual objects for visitors to view them. However, these methods prevent visitors from interacting with the historical events depicted in the paintings and do not explain the essential historical facts and stories that the paintings leave out. In this study, we propose an augmented reality system that provides 3D virtual restorations of information necessary for understanding court paintings and supports historical context experiences of royal events. Specifically, we restore the information required for the interpretation of the painting to a virtual 3D object so that visitors can intuitively understand the historical stories missing from the painting. In addition, the system allows visitors to experience royal events through various interactions. The structural design combines experiential learning theory and digital storytelling so that visitors can be exposed to historical knowledge in a stepwise manner. According to the user study results, our system provides visitors with a more immersive experience and gives more accurate information about royal events compared to the existing method. This result suggests that the proposed system effectively communicates historical information and stories of court paintings to visitors who view paintings that require prior historical knowledge.INDEX TERMS Augmented reality, court painting, 3D virtual restoration, user experience, user testing.

Cultural Heritage Information Retrieval: Past, Present, and Future Trends

“…CH professionals began to provide digital storytelling tools to enable engagement and interactivity between users and heritage objects [205]. Various technological possibilities have been applied in digital storytelling and narrative authoring tools such as multimedia presentation, VR/AR and mixed reality (MXD) interfaces [206], [207], [208] and indoor navigation [170] to connect several objects with a specific narrative. However, there are a number of suggestions that can be helpful in making digital storytelling easier and more effective.…”

Evaluating the Impact of Presentation on Learning and Narrative in AR of Cultural Heritage

“…Therefore, in environments such as museums, the use of tablet PCs with high accessibility is considered more advantageous. Consequently, participants in this study engaged in augmented reality experiences using tablet PCs (Galaxy Tab S7+), equipped with the exact specifications employed in the previously mentioned study [20]. The tablet screen measured 285.0 x 185.0mm, and participants held the tablets themselves during the experiment (Figure 4).…”

“…It is commonly used in CH AR research and aims to provide users with better educational experiences [18] , [19]. As an example, a study focusing on the creation of court paintings AR, among Korea's documentary CH, utilized the presentation method to design visitor experiences and provide information [20]. However, there is a lack of research on the effects of different presentation approaches in relation to CH AR on visitor learning achievements and narrative variations.…”

“…Here, we provide users with three systems with different presentation designs while keeping the amount of information in the court paintings (CP) AR consistent with that in a previous study [20]. Subsequently, we investigated the impact of these different presentation approaches on user learning achievements and narrative variations.…”