Open City Museum: Unveiling the Cultural Heritage of Athens Through an -Augmented Reality Based- Time Leap

Abstract

A nation’s cultural heritage is of great importance both for indigenous people as well as for foreigners as it is a nation’s contribution to humanity and global civilization. As the spark to discover that treasure has ignited and travelling around the world has become much easier, it is necessary to enhance the way that monuments are exhibited and communicated. Current technology offers the capability to alter the way that information is provided and represented. Augmented reality (AR) is the most characteristic example as it surpasses the limits that exist in other media offering a unique experience to the user. A great challenge for AR is to shed a new light on monuments, especially in cities like Athens, filled with historical monuments. In this paper we describe the methodology that was followed in order to create an AR application that will provide users with a virtual time leap experience in the past depicting the monument’s history in its social context. Thus, the issues emerging during the development of an AR app is discussed, as well as solutions to common problems regarding its utilization in outdoors space. Aiming to shed light on its importance throughout the centuries, an interdisciplinary research has been conducted combining fields like architecture and psychology in order to inform and in parallel, arouse emotions to visitors and thus, intensify the experience. Supporting that, user experience has been enhanced following a UI/UX approach, which provides the appropriate tools between easy-to-use and following a narrative.