Development and Evaluation of an Outdoor Multisensory AR System for Cultural Heritage

Alexandrino Goncalves,Miguel Melo,Maximino Bessa,Anabela Marto

doi:10.1109/access.2021.3050974

Abstract

Enhancing tourist visits to cultural heritage sites by making use of mobile augmented reality has been a tendency in the last few years, presenting mainly audiovisual experiences. However, these explorations using only visuals and sounds, or narratives, do not allow users to be presented with, for example, a particular smell that can be important to feel engaged or to better understand the history of the site. This article pursues the goal of creating an experience that puts the user in a scene planned to evoke several stimuli with SensiMAR prototype - a Multisensory Augmented Reality system that aims to be used in cultural heritage outdoors. When using SensiMAR, the user will be involved with visual reconstructions, surrounded by the soundscape of ancient times, and is exposed to a particular smell very common that time. Given the novelty of this proposal, ascertaining the usability of such a system was raised as a foremost demand. Thus, in addition to its development and implementation specifications, an experimental study was conducted to evaluate the usability of the system in end-users' perspective. The results obtained from random visitors of an archaeological site were analysed according to their sex, age, previous experience with augmented reality technology, and provided condition - audiovisual condition, and multisensory condition, with visual, audio, and smell stimuli. Results were collected from a total of 67 participants and show that this multisensory prototype achieved good usability results across all groups. No statistically differences were found, demonstrating good usability of the SensiMAR system regardless of their sex, age, previous experience with the technology or provided condition.

Highlights

Literature supports the use of augmented reality (AR) for enhancing visitors’ experiences in cultural heritage (CH) contexts for multifarious reasons
OF RESULTS In accordance with table 2, the presented data reveals good usability of this outdoor system stated by all types of participants, as all groups obtained scores above 68, which correlates with systems having high usability [80]
The current analysis reveals a slight difference between women and men when using the SensiMAR system, from 80.0 points to 80.6, a minimal different of 0.6 points that, for being close to 80.2, is reflected in the System Usability Scale (SUS) quarter grade, being classified as ‘‘good’’ by female audience and as ‘‘excellent’’ by men

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Literature supports the use of augmented reality (AR) for enhancing visitors’ experiences in cultural heritage (CH) contexts for multifarious reasons. Marto et al.: Development and Evaluation of an Outdoor Multisensory AR System for CH stated as valuable in CH for their contributions in users’ satisfaction [13]–[16], in interpretation improvements on the heritage topic [17] or in the engagement with the experience [16], [17] These benefits, known and supported by literature mainly found with virtual reality (VR) technologies, are valuable contributions for further implementations in CH sites, providing interesting insights regarding several fields of interest, in particular, when dealing with a novel approach, regarding usability and satisfaction of their systems close to end-users. The relevance given in the current study to different groups of participants organized by sex, by age groups – taking into consideration generations –, and by their previous experience with AR technology, in the conducted usability evaluations, allows to support and understand how different individual characterises could influence, or not, the usability perceived by participants

BACKGROUND

MULTISENSORY SYSTEMS IN CH

OF RESULTS

Findings

VIII. CONCLUSION