Abstract
PlugSonic is a suite of web- and mobile-based applications for the curation and experience of 3D interactive soundscapes and sonic narratives in the cultural heritage context. It was developed as part of the PLUGGY EU project (Pluggable Social Platform for Heritage Awareness and Participation) and consists of two main applications: PlugSonic Sample, to edit and apply audio effects, and PlugSonic Soundscape, to create and experience 3D soundscapes for headphones playback. The audio processing within PlugSonic is based on the Web Audio API and the 3D Tune-In Toolkit, while the mobile exploration of soundscapes in a physical space is obtained using Apple’s ARKit. The main goal of PlugSonic is technology democratisation; PlugSonic users—whether cultural institutions or citizens—are all given the instruments needed to create, process and experience 3D soundscapes and sonic narratives; without the need for specific devices, external tools (software and/or hardware), specialised knowledge or custom development. The aims of this paper are to present the design and development choices, the user involvement processes as well as a final evaluation conducted with inexperienced users on three tasks (creation, curation and experience), demonstrating how PlugSonic is indeed a simple, effective, yet powerful tool.
Highlights
A heritage that is everywhere, and is relevant to everyday life, is one of the preconditions for genuine sustainability [1]
One participant exited the app to search in the “My Assets” page of the social platform and tried the Import button meant to be used for Soundscape metadata
Once an asset was added, one participant could not see the icon of the source as it was masked by the floor-plan image
Summary
A heritage that is everywhere, and is relevant to everyday life, is one of the preconditions for genuine sustainability [1]. The social platform gives access to the curation tools—which are designed to create basic exhibitions in the form of blog stories or time-lines—and is extended by the “pluggable” apps for the curation of augmented exhibitions and engaging experiences These applications focus on various aspects of digital heritage, which include Virtual (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), Geolocation, Gamification and 3D Soundscapes and Sonic Narratives. The PLUGGY social platform gives access to external repositories like Europeana [7] and Wikipedia and includes an open source application programming interface (API) which allows anyone to develop new applications that access the platform’s content and extend its features or curation tools. The authors of [16] explored spatial sonic narratives, but exploited simple 2-dimensional audio panning techniques
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