Context Awareness in Cultural Heritage Applications: A Survey

Abstract

Cultural Heritage Institutions fueled by the advances in Information Technology are exploiting new ways to present their content to visitors. The emergence of the Internet of Things paradigm has shifted their efforts into a more personalized and adaptable experience that takes into consideration the visitor profile and behavior, in respect to presented artifacts and environmental parameters. Context-awareness allows the understanding of the situation and the optimization of the delivered cultural User Experience. In this article, we survey context awareness in cultural heritage applications. After presenting the background of Context Awareness and its features to cultural environments, a subset of research projects that incorporate context aware traits in a cultural scenario is reviewed. Each prototype is analysed in respect to several criteria that include context sensing, middleware, and incorporation methods. Finally, based on the review, lessons learnt, and directions for the development of similar prototypes are highlighted.