Dragos Gheorghiu, Livia Stefan, Immersing into the Past: an Augmented Reality Method to Link Tangible and Intangible Heritage

Abstract

The current IT and digital technologies such as Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR) enable the overlap of digital and real world information in relation with a topic, in an engaging and efficient manner, and therefore can be used to store intangible heritage and to study it in the context as well. The current paper refers to such an augmentation of cultural information, performed at the Kallatis site, whose ruins, at present mostly covered by the modern town, do not offer sufficient information on the complexity of the Greek civilization. The implementation of a MAR application consisted in defining several points of interest of the important local archaeologic discoveries, which can trigger, for the visitors using our application, an augmentation of the historical site with images and videos. With the current research work, the authors propose and demonstrate that a mobile MAR application can constitute a modern method for providing visitors with an immersive and holistic experience for understanding the local material and intangible heritage.

A Systematic Literature Review of Virtual Technology in Hospitality and Tourism (2013–2022)

“…AR overlays digital and real-world information related to certain topics engagingly and effectively (Gheorghiu & Stefan, 2020), which enhances tourists’ perceptions and awareness (T. Jung et al, 2015).…”

“…AR overlays digital and real-world information related to certain topics engagingly and effectively (Gheorghiu & Stefan, 2020), which enhances tourists' perceptions and awareness (T. Jung et al, 2015). With the explosive growth in the number of smartphone users, app-based AR has been more accessible to wider use (H. Lee et al, 2015).…”

“…Research related to cultural heritage has put forward applications of AR in cultural heritage sites from the perspectives of sustainable development (e.g., Gonza´lez-Delgado et al, 2020), public cognition (e.g., Tsai & Lee, 2017) and digitization (e.g., Shih et al, 2020) of cultural heritage. Mobile AR applications can stimulate potential visitors' interest and enthusiasm in an engaging and efficient manner (Gheorghiu & Stefan, 2020) by, for example, bringing historic buildings back to life by reconstructing and interpreting old events (M. C. Tom . This positively influences the sustainability of cultural heritage and increases public self-assessment of local history and culture (Tsai & Lee, 2017), while providing a barrier-less opportunity for scholars and the public to learn about cultural heritage that may be inaccessible (Pehlivanides et al, 2020).…”

“…Research related to cultural heritage has put forward applications of AR in cultural heritage sites from the perspectives of sustainable development (e.g., González-Delgado et al, 2020), public cognition (e.g., Tsai & Lee, 2017) and digitization (e.g., Shih et al, 2020) of cultural heritage. Mobile AR applications can stimulate potential visitors’ interest and enthusiasm in an engaging and efficient manner (Gheorghiu & Stefan, 2020) by, for example, bringing historic buildings back to life by reconstructing and interpreting old events (M. C. Tom Dieck & Jung, 2017).…”