Virtual Reality Based Access to Knowledge Graphs for History Research

Abstract

Purpose: Knowledge graphs have so far been intensively used in the cultural heritage domain. Current interaction paradigms and interfaces however are often limited to textual representations or 2D visualizations, not taking into account the 4D nature of data. In digital history in particular, where events as well as geographical and temporal relationships play an important role, exploration paradigms that take into account the 4D nature of event-related data are important, as they have the potential to support historians in generating new knowledge and discovering new relationships. In this paper, we explore the potential of virtual reality as a paradigm allowing digital humanities researchers, historians in particular, to explore a semantic 4D space defined by knowledge graphs from an egocentric perspective. Methodology: We present eTaRDiS: a virtual reality based tool supporting immersive exploration of knowledge graphs. We evaluate the tool in the context of a task in which historians and laypersons with a history background explore DBpedia and Wikidata. We report results of a study involving 13 subjects that interacted with the data in eTaRDiS in the context of a specific task, in order to gain insights regarding the interaction patterns of users with our system. The usability of the tool was evaluated using a questionnaire including questions from the System Usability Scale (SUS) in addition to task-specific questions. Findings: The usability evaluation showed that our tool achieved an overall SUS score of 71.92, corresponding to a ‘satisfactory’ rating. While the mean score reached with laypersons with a history background was quite high with 76.0, corresponding to a rating of ‘excellent’, the score for historians was lower with 69.4, corresponding to a ‘sufficient to satisfactory’ rating. A qualitative analysis of the interaction data revealed that participants quickly identified the relevant information in the tasks using a variety of strategies and taking advantage of the features provided in eTaRDiS. Value: eTaRDiS is to our knowledge the first virtual reality based exploration tool supporting the exploration of knowledge graphs. The findings of the usability evaluation and the qualitative analysis of exploration patterns show that the system could potentially be a valuable tool for allowing digital humanities researchers to explore knowledge graphs as a way to discover new relationships between historical events and persons of interest.