Multisensory Augmented Reality in Cultural Heritage: Impact of Different Stimuli on Presence, Enjoyment, Knowledge and Value of the Experience

Maximino Bessa,Miguel Melo,Anabela Marto,Alexandrino Goncalves

doi:10.1109/access.2020.3032379

Abstract

Little is known about the impact of the addition of each stimulus in multisensory augmented reality experiences in cultural heritage contexts. This paper investigates the impact of different sensory conditions on a user's sense of presence, enjoyment, knowledge about the cultural site, and value of the experience. Five different multisensory conditions, namely, Visual, Visual + Audio, Visual + Smell, and Visual + Audio + Smell conditions, and regular visit referred to as None condition, were evaluated by a total of 60 random visitors distributed across the specified conditions. According to the results, the addition of particular types of stimuli created a different impact on the sense of presence subscale scores, namely, on spatial presence, involvement, and experienced realism, but did not influence the overall presence score. Overall, the results revealed that the addition of stimuli improved enjoyment and knowledge scores and did not affect the value of the experience scores. We concluded that each stimulus has a differential impact on the studied variables, demonstrating that its usage should depend on the goal of the experience: smell should be used to privilege realism and spatial presence, while audio should be adopted when the goal is to elicit involvement.

Highlights

T HE majority of archaeological sites exhibit the remains of lost ancient, stunning buildings as well as other cultural remnants from our ancestors
The Visual+Smell condition that appeared to have a positive influence on spatial presence is the same that had the opposite effect on involvement, where the Visual+Audio condition was more influential on the feeling of involvement in the experience
This study presented results related to presence, enjoyment, knowledge, and value of the experience obtained by an evaluation in situ with end-users. This augmented reality (AR) multisensory system allowed the presentation to participants the senses of sight, hearing, and smell following modular stimulation, which is rare [3]

Summary

Introduction

T HE majority of archaeological sites exhibit the remains of lost ancient, stunning buildings as well as other cultural remnants from our ancestors. There is a general tendency to use technologies to improve visits to cultural heritage sites, and these technologies, such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), have been important to engage visitors and enhance exploration [1]. The recent literature has presented several multisensory strategies using virtual and augmented reality technologies for different types of heritage sites, such as the "Haptic Museum" [4], the "Museum of Pure-Form" [5], the "National Archaeological Museum of Marche" [6], "The Feelies" [7], or the "Tanning in Medieval Coventry" [8]. Some approaches are targeted explicitly for AR technologies, such as the "Zelige Door on Golborne Road" [9], the "M5SAR" [10], and the two case studies of AR multisensory approaches in CH exhibitions [3]

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