Personalization in cultural heritage: the road travelled and the one ahead

Over the last 20 years, cultural heritage has been a favored domain for personalization research. For years, researchers have experimented with the cutting edge technology of the day; now, with the convergence of internet and wireless technology, and the increasing adoption of the Web as a platform for the publication of information, the visitor is able to exploit cultural heritage material before, during and after the visit, having different goals and requirements in each phase. However, cultural heritage sites have a huge amount of information to present, which must be filtered and personalized in order to enable the individual user to easily access it. Personalization of cultural heritage information requires a system that is able to model the user (e.g., interest, knowledge and other personal characteristics), as well as contextual aspects, select the most appropriate content, and deliver it in the most suitable way. It should be noted that achieving this result is extremely challenging in the case of first-time users, such as tourists who visit a cultural heritage site for the first time (and maybe the only time in their life). In addition, as tourism is a social activity, adapting to the individual is not enough because groups and communities have to be modeled and supported as well, taking into account their mutual interests, previous mutual experience, and requirements. How to model and represent the user(s) and the context of the visit and how to reason with regard to the information that is available are the challenges faced by researchers in personalization of cultural heritage. Notwithstanding the effort invested so far, a definite solution is far from being reached, mainly because new technology and new aspects of personalization are constantly being introduced. This article surveys the research in this area. Starting from the earlier systems, which presented cultural heritage information in kiosks, it summarizes the evolution of personalization techniques in museum web sites, virtual collections and mobile guides, until recent extension of cultural heritage toward the semantic and social web. The paper concludes with current challenges and points out areas where future research is needed

Analysing recent augmented and virtual reality developments in tourism

Purpose Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are two technological breakthroughs that stimulate reality perception. Both have been applied in tourism contexts to improve tourists’ experience. This paper aims to frame both AR and VR developments during the past 15 years from a scientific perspective. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts a text mining and topic modelling approach to analyse a total of 1,049 articles for VR and 406 for AR. The papers were selected from Scopus, with the title, abstract and keywords being extracted for the analysis. Formulated research hypotheses based on relevant publications are then evaluated to assess the current state of the broader scope of the large sets of literature. Findings Most of research using AR is based on mobile technology. Yet, wearable devices still show few publications, a gap that is expected to close in the near future. There is a lack of research adopting Big Data/machine learning approaches based on secondary data. Originality/value As both AR and VR technologies are becoming more mature, more applications to tourism emerge. Scholars need to keep pace and fill in the research gaps on both domains to move research forward.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Toward a model of computational attention based on expressive behavior: applications to cultural heritage scenarios

Our project goals consisted in the development of attention-based analysis of human expressive behavior and the implementation of real-time algorithm in EyesWeb XMI in order to improve naturalness of human-computer interaction and context-based monitoring of human behavior. To this aim, perceptual-model that mimic human attentional processes was developed for expressivity analysis and modeled by entropy. Museum scenarios were selected as an ecological test-bed to elaborate three experiments that focus on visitor profiling and visitors flow regulation

THE FUTURE OF DIGITAL WORK - USE CASES FOR AUGMENTED REALITY GLASSES

Microsoft’s HoloLens enables true augmented reality (AR) by placing virtual objects within the real world. This paper aims at presenting trades (based on ISIC) that can benefit from AR as well as possible use cases. Firstly, the authors conducted a systematic literature search to identi-fy relevant papers. Six databases (including EBSCOhost, ScienceDirect and SpringerLink) were scanned for the term “HoloLens”. Out of 680 results, two researchers identified 150 articles as thematically relevant. Secondly, these papers were analysed utilising qualitative content analy-sis. Findings reveal 26 trades where AR glasses are in use for practice or research purposes. The most frequent are human health, education and research. In addition, we provide a cata-logue of 7 main use cases, such as Process Guidance or Data Access and Visualisation as well as 27 sub use cases addressing corresponding functionalities in more detail. The results of this paper are trades and application scenarios for AR glasses. Thus, this article contributes to re-search in the field of service systems design, especially AR glasses-based service systems, and provide evidence for the future of digital work

Live at LICA: Collection Access Via Augmented Reality - Research and Development Report

There is significant scope to improve access to museums collections, with almost half of the UK population not visiting a museum in 2012-2013. Augmented Reality provides new opportunities to create access to and deeper engagement with collections. The museums sector has been exploring its potential to some degree, but survey data suggests many more will do so in the next few years. To date, AR and mobile applications developed by the sector such as the Let's Explore and Museum of London Streetview apps - have been limited in scope. Academic Research projects in this area have not often been taken beyond initial user engagement studies and released publicly. AR sits in a distinct part of the virtuality continuum, which ranges from the completely real to the completely virtual. When deciding to deploy AR, there are a number of factors to consider right at the outset, including whether it will be available on a mobile device or wearable tech (eg headset), whether it is sensor or vision based and how the data will be stored and accessed. This project took place between April 2013 and May 2014. It involved the creation of an Android mobile application which enables users to view 2D images from the Peter Scott Gallery as though exhibited in a physical space, accessed from any locaton with internet connectivity. The research question was concerned with whether mobile augmented reality (MAR) could increase meaningful engagement with museums and art gallery collections. The project team adopted a methodology closely aligned with Research Through Design. They produced 5 digital versions of the prop type and these were developed with iterative participatory design. More than 80 users participated including gallery volunteers and staff, children from local schools and young people from local colleges.  The project team had to respond to several changes in personnel and technical challenges. This resulted in reallocated roles, increased development time, reduced content and reduced promotional activity. The budget was £96,840 but this did not include significant additional unbilled time given by the project team. As a result of the project, a free app was launched in the UK in May 2014 and in the USA in July 2014. It has been downloaded to date 45 times and remains accessible to the public. The software used is open source. A key goal for the arts partner going forward is to find resource to extend the content available. The content management system which is fully functional has been designed to enable this to happen in house. The project has generated insights concerning ethical use of data, backwards compatibility of devices, publication and copyright issues and the quality of digitised collection images

New Trends in Using Augmented Reality Apps for Smart City Contexts

The idea of virtuality is not new, as research on visualization and simulation dates back to the early use of ink and paper sketches for alternative design comparisons. As technology has advanced so the way of visualizing simulations as well, but the progress is slow due to difficulties in creating workable simulations models and effectively providing them to the users. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, the evolving technologies that have been haunting the tech industry, receiving excessive attention from the media and colossal growing are redefining the way we interact, communicate and work together. From consumer application to manufacturers these technologies are used in different sectors providing huge benefits through several applications. In this work, we demonstrate the potentials of Augmented Reality techniques in a Smart City (Smart Campus) context. A multiplatform mobile app featuring Augmented Reality capabilities connected to GIS services are developed to evaluate different features such as performance, usability, effectiveness and satisfaction of the Augmented Reality technology in the context of a Smart Campus

Mapping Requirements for the Wearable Smart Glasses Augmented Reality Museum Application

Purpose: Recent advancements in wearable computing offer opportunities for art galleries to provide a unique experience. However, in order to ensure successful implementation of this new technology in the visitor industry, it is essential to understand user requirements from a visitor's point of view. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to investigate visitors' requirements for the development of a wearable smart glasses Augmented Reality (AR) application in the museum and art gallery context. Design/Methodology/Approach: Interviews with 28 art gallery visitors were conducted and an affinity diagram technique was used to analyze the interviews. Findings: The findings reveal that wearable AR is in its infancy and that technical and design issues have to be overcome for a full adoption. It reveals that content requirement, functional requirement, comfort, experience and resistance are important when developing and implementing the wearable AR application in the museum and art gallery context. Originality/Value: Mapping user requirements in the wearable smart glasses AR context using an affinity diagram is a new approach and therefore contributes to the creation of knowledge in the tourism domain. Practically, the area of wearable technologies and AR within the tourism and visitor industry context is still relatively unexplored and the present paper provides a first foundation for the implementation of wearable smart glasses AR applications in the museum and art gallery context

Improving the user knowledge and user experience by using Augmented reality in a smart city context

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Geospatial TechnologiesThe idea of Virtuality is not new, as research on visualization and simulation dates back to the early use of ink and paper sketches for alternative design comparisons. As the technology has advanced so the way of visualizing simulations as well, but the progress is slow due to difficulties in creating workable simulations models and effectively providing them to the users (Simpson, 2001). Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR), the evolving technologies that has been haunting the tech industry, receiving excessive attention from the media and growing tremendously are redefining the way we interact, communicate and work together (Shamalinia, 2017). From consumer application to manufacturers these technologies are used in different sectors providing huge benefits through several applications. In this work, we demonstrate the potentials of AR techniques in a smart city context. Initially we present an overview of the state of the art software and technology for AR in different domains of smart cities, and outline considerations from a user study about the effectiveness and user performance of AR technique: real environment with augmented information, everything in the context of a smart city. The evaluation results from the participants show promising results, providing opportunities for improvements and implementation in smart cities