Virtual Heritage: combining the past with

modern technology

Sebastian BuksDohi Sweden

Lund Universitysebastian@dohi.se

@sebbuks

Who am I?• Former student at Scandinavia's largest

university: Lund University

• 46 000 students

• Eight faculties(I was a student at the Faculty of Engineering)

• Started my own business in 2010 and recently joined forces with Dohi Sweden

• 25 enthusiasts located in Umeå, Stockholm and Malmö

• Software/Hardware

• Mobile development, Internet-TV solutions, Games, Consultants...and more

Who am I?• Representing Ph. D. Mattias Wallergård

(He was my supervisor for my master’s thesis)

• Multidisciplinary research group at Lund UniversityInvestigates:

- the use and impact of digital technologies in the cultural heritage domain

- how “time travels” can be used to enhance our perception of past and future

- V-Must partner (FP7 NoE)

• Representing my own and Dohi Sweden’s research in the field

Scope of presentation

• Statistics and background

• Give an overview of our work on using Augmented Reality in the context of cultural heritage / State-of-the-art

• Focus on mobile and communication aspects

• Demonstration

Some numbers...• There are 5.3 billion mobile subscribers (that's 77 percent of the world

population). Growth is led by China and India.

• Total shipments of smartphones in 2010 were 302.6 million units up 74.4 percent from 2009. This makes smartphones 21.8 percent of all handsets shipped (about 50% in western countries).

• By 2015, 631 million smartphones will be sold.

• The number of people accessing the mobile Internet is growing fast and is expected to overtake the PC as the most popular way to get on the Web within five years.

• Accessing maps and directions is the no. 1 mobile activity, followed by social networking, accessing local information and reading news. Playing games comes in at no. 5 just behind music.

Virtual Heritage & Game-based learning

• Virtual heritage is a term used to describe works dealing with information and communication technologies and cultural heritage.

• Game-based learning: type of games that deals with applications that have defined learning outcomes. Often combined with storylines etc.

• So: VH+GBL = ways in which technology, interactivity, or cultural conventions of computer gaming can help afford the cultural understanding of the self, of the past, or of others with mindsets quite different to our own.

What is Augmented Reality?

Digital data + Reality = Augmented Reality (AR)

What is Augmented Reality?

• Used in TV/Sports• Military• Navigation• Movies etc.

• Two main types:• Marker based (Reference point is an image e.g.)• Position based (Reference point is GPS-coord. e.g. Layar anyone?)

What is Augmented Reality?

Marker based:• Very accurate, results in a high reality feeling.• Needs a marker• Depending on light condition, hard to recognize the marker

Position based:• Not as accurate, results in a poor reality feeling• Needs no marker, just a GPS signal.• Not possible inside (without extra equipment), only outdoors

Pros and cons:

Projects

Case study (1/3)Augmented Reality inside

Lund University Historical Museum

The Barbaricum exhibition: findings from the iron age city of Uppåkra

Case study (1/3)

Questions:

• Possible to combine a storytelling approach with Augmented Reality?

• Usability issues?

Case study (1/3)

Case study (1/3)Usability evaluation results:

• ”Wow factor” due the unique experience• Initial difficulties understanding• Request for more data/content

Case study (2/3)Augmented Reality at the Uppåkra excavation site

No reconstruction will be built...

...pretty uninterestingfor every non-archeologist

Case study (2/3)Question:

What possibilities are there with smartphone AR in regards to:

• 3D visualization?• storytelling?

Case study (2/3)Work in progress...

Case study (2/3)

Case study (3/3)Augmented Reality for historical

city walks in Malmö

• Collaboration with Virtual Historical Models• 3D model of Malmö year 1692 in high detail (based on thousands of documents from a 1692 military stocktaking)

• About 1000 buildings

Case study (3/3)

• Possible to create a mobile experience based on the 3D material from Malmö 1692?

• How to design the interaction between the user and the content?

• How to create a unified experience combining the mobile application with museum activities?

Case study (3/3)AR like experience:

• Points of interest (POI) with 3D models connected to them

• The game development tool Unity and high-quality sensor-based tracking (e.g. iPad 2)

• Making Malmö museum a POI

Conclusions• Augmented Reality, storytelling and GBL is a promising combination

• Crucial to design user interfaces with high usability due to the novelty of the AR medium

• Points of interest in combination with 3D models open up new possibilities

• Considering smartphone availability and computation power we should see a lot more of this, starting with casual games and moving on to ???

Demonstration

ContactFeel free to contact me with any questions, I’ll be around

until Friday morning. Thank you!

sebastian@dohi.se+46 739 47 58 14Twitter: @sebbuks

http://www.dohi.se