John Tredinnick – National Trust

Supervisors:
Dr Paul Richens
Dr Eamonn O’Neill

Industry Mentor:
David Adshead

 

The Application of Augmented Reality to Heritage Assets: Content design and creation for heritage applications in generic rather than site-specific terms.

Background research will look at: the intentions and objectives of visitor systems currently being considered within the National Trust, or implemented by leading museum and heritage sites and museums; the capabilities, ambitions and needs of companies developing such systems commercially; and the workflow practices found in comparable organisations such as game studios.

The research projects can be summarised under the headings of effectiveness and efficiency.

The effectiveness dimension relates to the depth of the visitor experience that is achieved, with elements of information, narrative, ludic and spatial design all relevant. Information design might include modes of operation, eg “conducted tour”, “explain this”, “how to find that”. It would also consider how to layer different themes into a presentation, eg periods of history, or phases of building. Narrative design would include how to weave stories into the experience. Ludic design includes elements of game-play to promote engagement.

The efficiency dimension relates to the very real problem that constructing immersive 3D worlds is at present unrealistically labour intensive. Routes for mitigation are worthy of serious research which might examine: stockpiling re-useable elements such as characters, animals, plants; automating the construction of certain elements; selecting or designing archival formats that maximise potential for re-use as the delivery technology evolves; using crowd sourcing to harness volunteer contributions to a project; using machinima for narrative content; using data capture technology such as laser scanning to reduce production effort.

The result of the project would be, in theoretical terms, a validated generic architecture for digital mobile and ubiquitous applications for heritage sites, and in practical terms and efficient workflow for achieving them, using either existing commercial software, prototyped new programs, or, most likely, a mixture.