Conveying Cultural Heritage and Legacy with Innovative AR-based Solutions. 1. Motivation: Authenticity Whenever Possible Conveying cultural heritage is undoubtedly one major and publicly the most recognized task of museums. This task is often achieved through exposition of cultural artifacts. Generally, museums try to exhibit originals – authentic artifacts of history. Explanatory media such as textual descriptions are arranged with the artifact in order to mediate the role, functionality and context of the artifact in a culture. However, this strategy is not always possible. Exhibitions may pose danger not only for the exhibited objects but also for visitors: for example, Marie Curie’s workspace that led her to insights about radioactivity is unlikely to be exposed in its original form.
Besides, even if it is feasible to expose an artifact, it may not be comprehensible just by letting visitors play with it. In all these cases, Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) techniques offer significant benefit. 2. 3. (Louvre, 2008), 4. 5. 6. 7. Acknowledgements. Augmented Reality: does it have a place/future in education? Augmented Reality (AR) is still in its infancy, but as people like me look further afield to find interesting technology to use in (and out of) the classroom, it has been on my radar a bit recently. So, what is it? “Unlike Virtual Reality (VR) that aims at replacing the perception of the world with an artificial one, Augmented Reality (AR) has the goal of enhancing a person’s perception of the surrounding world. Being partly virtual and real, the new interface technology of AR which is able to display relevant information at the appropriate time and location, offers many potential applications; these include aiding in education, training, repair or maintenance, manufacturing, medicine, battlefield, games and entertainment.”
Source: Asia Research News, Augmented Reality: The Future of Education Technology Check out this YouTube video that demonstrates AR from the SMLXL blog; But what of AR in the classroom? Further reading: Augmented Reality - Explained by Common Craft (Free Version) Second Life as a Platform for Augmented Reality. Tinmith Augmented Reality Project - Wearable Computer Lab.