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Cultural Heritage and New Technologies: Trends and Challenges
... museums and art galleries) and citizens. Furthermore, the usage of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can enhance users enjoyment, and people can learn more effectively about culture [1]. ...
... The learning experience and enjoyment at a cultural heritage site are highly necessary for a visitor when visiting cultural heritage sites [4]. However, it is not adequately provided with the existing of traditional media [1]. AR introduces a set of opportunities that should not be passed over. ...
In the past few years, it is noticed a fast adoption and increase of mobile devices that are able to retrieve information quickly, regardless of the user's physical environment. Thus, application developers have leveraged it by developing a variety of applications using mobile Augmented Reality (AR) in domains such as cultural heritage education, shopping, gaming, and more. AR technology overlays a virtual object into the real world that enables users to have virtual and real-world experience at the same time. During a visit to a cultural heritage site such as a museum or an art gallery, the learning experience and enjoyment is necessary for a visitor and AR introduces new opportunities to improve them. We propose an AR-based framework for cultural heritage education. We aim to promote cultural heritage education by enriching user's experience and at the same time to offer the knowledge with the most enjoyable way. In order to evaluate our framework, we have developed a server application and an AR-based smartphone application.
... Technology can become a facilitator of interactions and connections between all involved actors, can enhance enjoyment and the effectiveness of learning, and increase engagement in other activities in the museum environment (Andre, Durksen, and Volman 2017;Piccialli and Chianese 2017). However, in order to bridge the gap between the museum's heritage offerings and visitor expectations, it is important for the technology to engage visitors, increase their interest, and combine factors including availability, accessibility, and usefulness to offer an opportunity for visitor participation (Hassan and Ramkissoon 2016). ...
... This study also provides supporting evidence that AR has the potential to provide novel and authentic museum learning experiences, which are attractive for schoolchildren (Lai et al. 2007;Lai et al. 2009;Cianciarulo 2015), stimulate learning motivation and achievement (Lee, Billinghurst, and Woo 2011), and further adds that such benefits translate into the schoolchildren's desire to visit other museums utilising AR. The schoolchildren's engagement with the museum environment and curiosity to learn more about the museum's historical objects and artefacts increased because of using the AR application (Andre, Durksen, and Volman 2017;Piccialli and Chianese 2017). The findings highlight the importance of generating stimulating and interactive museum experiences (Sungkur, Panchoo, and Bhoyroo 2016;Andre, Durksen, and Volman 2017), which can be achieved through the use of AR graphics. ...
Museums facilitate schoolchildren’s experiential learning, and when combined with Augmented Reality (AR) applications, schoolchildren can benefit from interactive, engaging learning experiences. Experiential learning is therefore situated in a context relevant to schoolchildren’s learning experience with digital technologies such as AR in museums, hence, it seems appropriate to employ Kolb’s (1984) Experiential Learning Cycle as a theoretical base. A museum in the UK was used as a single case study, and experiments and three focus groups were conducted with 19 schoolchildren and data analysed using thematic analysis. This study revealed three new themes specific to schoolchildren’s experiential learning experiences with AR in museums including: (1) integrating AR could further enhance knowledge acquisition, (2) schoolchildren were able to identify their preferred learning style, and (3) schoolchildren are motivated to continue learning with AR in museums. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are presented, as well as suggestions for future research.
... Based on the methodology presented in Figure 2, the team followed a series of stages that allowed the identification of the pigments from the paint layer and the type of wood used to build the Imperial Gates. The working methodology is compatible with state-of-the-art procedures for digitization, restoration, maintenance, and digital reconstruction previously presented [38][39][40][41]. The development of complex applications as previously presented [27,30] requires advanced knowledge in fields such as restoration and conservation [31], reverse engineering and new product development [32,33], and programming and 3D modeling [34], that can only be accomplished with the help of interdisciplinary teams. ...
... Based on the methodology presented in Figure 2, the team followed a series of stages that allowed the identification of the pigments from the paint layer and the type of wood used to build the Imperial Gates. The working methodology is compatible with state-of-the-art procedures for digitization, restoration, maintenance, and digital reconstruction previously presented [38][39][40][41]. The methodology also focused on the digitization, digital restoration, and the promotion of the cultural heritage assets using online dissemination methods. ...
One of the most beautiful elements of cultural heritage in Romanian villages is the Transylvanian wooden churches. Unfortunately, these heritage elements have experienced considerable deterioration. This paper presents the results of a project whose main goal was the scientific investigation of the Imperial Gates belonging to the wooden church in Sălișca, Cluj County, Romania. To digitally preserve and document the Imperial Gates, a scientific investigation into the wooden support and the painting materials (ground, pigments) were performed using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and x-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy. FTIR spectroscopy provided information about the wooden support, whereas XRF and FTIR methods were used to structurally characterize the painting materials. These structural data were correlated with the artistic, theological, and historical analysis of the religious heritage monument. Starting from the information acquired about the wooden support and the painting materials, the Imperial Gates were three-dimensional (3D) scanned using state-of-the-art laser scanners. The digitization of the Imperial Gates and the interior of the church was performed to maintain the current preservation status and disseminate this information to the public using online instruments.
... The rapid adoption of mobile technology and ubiquitous computing has ushered in innovative approaches to preserving and transmitting cultural heritage. These technologies facilitate interactions and connections between cultural spaces and individuals, enabling them to more effectively learn about their history and culture in an enjoyable manner [46]. In physical sites where tangible heritage is visible, mobile apps featuring tour guides can enhance the heritage experience by providing visual information about historical artifacts and guiding visitors to points of interest [32]. ...
... Other studies also remarked on the additional advantages of AR experience, as it stimulates learning motivation and makes the participants more prone to visit other museums with AR [59]. It also generates more engagement during the visit [60,61] Regarding the VR application, it is thought of as a complement to the AR experience. It was developed as a virtual reproduction of the museum visit that can be experienced from any location, thus contributing to a higher diffusion of the museum contents. ...
The way that the new generations approach cultural contents changed dramatically. The audiovisual language substituted traditional media. Museums face now an important challenge to survive as cultural referents in this new paradigm: the introduction of new audiovisual languages in their exhibitions and the provision of attractive online content. The work presents a case study of the use of augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) in a technological heritage museum, with a double approach: on the one hand the development of AR to enhance the real visit to the museum; and on the other, the provision of VR to ease online visits to the museum for those that do not want to or cannot visit it. The results show that young visitors massively appreciate the use of these technologies. Using AR contents also contributes to the preservation of the original artifacts without damage. Furthermore, multimedia content provides some contextual information, improving the learning experience. Regarding the VR application, it is thought as a complement to the AR experience. It was developed as a virtual reproduction of the museum visit that can be experienced from any location, thus contributing to a higher diffusion of the museum contents.
... (3) Degree distribution of power law ''Degree'' is divided into in degree and out degree. We say the sum of the number of in degree and out degree of nodes is node degree [22]. Clustering features are mainly reflected in the degree of clustering in the so-called scale-free network. ...
The essence of big data may be the science of complex network, which should be one of the basic theories of big data, and the direct object of mobile communication network is big data. The purpose of this paper is to study the evaluation method of communication network robustness based on the combination of cloud edge computer and big data. Firstly, the technical system of big data technology and the basic concept and model of complex network are studied. Secondly, it analyzes the robustness of single-layer network and multi-layer network to lay a solid foundation for the following experiments. Set up the experiment code, and test each experiment several times to get the final data. The experimental results show that the change of R (LCC) from 0 to non-0 occurs at the reciprocal of the average for different network averages, that is, the critical value of network robustness P is equal to the reciprocal of the average. Random networks are not robust to regular networks. Even if the average order of the random network is the same as that of the regular network, the random network is not robust to the regular network. There are 5 × 10⁴ nodes in each of the random networks ER1 and ER2. ER1 and ER2 are one to one connected. The average value of ER1 is set to be the same as the average value of ER2. The multi-layer random network is not stable without single-layer random network.
... How, then, can we preserve cultural heritage and, consequently, the memory of the past? To answer this question, we need to look at the digital revolution that has been affecting the world in recent decades and analyse the complex and dialectical relationship between the cultural heritage domain and new technologies (Piccialli & Chianese, 2017). Since the 1990s, tools aimed at documenting and communicating cultural heritage have been introduced (Addison, 2001). ...
p class="VARAbstract">Can we preserve cultural heritage and, consequently, the memory of the past? To answer this question, one should look at the digital revolution that the world has gone through in recent decades and analyse the complex and the dialectical relationship between cultural heritage and new technologies. Thanks to these, increasingly accurate reconstructions of archaeological sites and historical monuments are possible. The resulting digital replicas are fundamental to experience and understand cultural heritage in innovative ways: they have complex and dynamic relationships with the original objects. This research paper highlights the importance and the scientific validity of digital replicas aimed at understanding, enhancing and protecting cultural heritage. The study focuses on the virtual reconstruction of the constructive phases, from the mid-15<sup>th</sup> century to date, of one of the most emblematic Gothic-Renaissance buildings in the city of Milan (Italy): the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, famous worldwide for hosting Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper painting. This site proved to be an ideal case study because of its troubled and little-known history that led to numerous changes over the centuries. Thanks to a methodological approach based on the analysis of the documentary sources and three-dimensional (3D) modelling, it was possible to outline the chronological succession of the convent transformations; the way in which these overlapped the pre-existing structures was described starting from the Renaissance harmonious and organic interventions, to finally reach 18<sup>th</sup>-19<sup>th </sup>centuries inhomogeneous and incompatible additions. Finally, the research was completed by mapping the 3D models based on the sources used and their different levels of accuracy. The 3D models have thus become a valid tool for checking and verifying the reconstruction hypotheses.
Highlights:
The study focused on the virtual reconstruction of the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, one of the most emblematicGothic-Renaissance buildings in the city of Milan.
By combining data from documentary sources, architectural treatises, period photos and digital survey, the mainbuilding phases of the convent, from the 15th century to date, were digitally reconstructed.
The 3D models are enriched with information about the accuracy of the digital reconstruction, creating 3D databasesthat can be easily consulted and updated.
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... U-learning has been used to comprehensively support learning in different domains, including blended strategies with collaborate education and preservation of cultural heritage [4] [5]. This topic has been a recent trend as it offers an engaging way to experience the environment. ...
This article presents a study of a ubiquitous learning application named YouuHE. It was developed to support Heritage Education experiences, enabling local citizens to create and share collective memories about historical places. Users can receive personalized content according to location and personal interest. This study lasted 20 weeks and the participants were all seniors who participated in a pre-existing coexistence group. The preliminary results identified 3 motivations aspects related to the learning process. In addition, the support offered by the application shows itself effective as a potential resource to create and share memories in this kind of ubiquitous heritage education experiences.
... Many cultural heritage sites may be inaccessible due to their location and are affected by natural and anthropogenic factors. Therefore, digitizing cultural heritage sites can assist in restoration and conservation efforts, as well as providing the general population with digital access to the site [4,5]. However, there is a decided lack of documentation and technical information in many existing historic buildings [6,7]. ...
Innovative technologies provide an accurate, simple and cost-effective method of documenting cultural heritage sites and generating digital 3D models using novel techniques and innovative methods. These digital 3D models can then be saved in a central database that can be accessed by end users. The project “Digital unblocking of holy islands” proposes digital service requires the creation of digital infrastructure and its enrichment with culturally digital evidence and data, in order to serve as an information hub for the management and promotion of ecclesiastical cultural heritage. The internal and external digitization of ecclesiastical monuments will be carried out using several methods, including images from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and photogrammetry. Hundreds of images from the monument will be taken using a UAV with an attached high-resolution camera. The images will then be processed through photogrammetry to provide a digital model of the church. The use of digital technology to document cultural heritage within a structure, creates a dynamic database and valuable resource to better understand the cultural heritage monument, as end-users will be able to access the information from the digital platform at any time.
This research is supported by the project entitled: “Navigators of Cultural Heritage Digitization of Churches of Cyprus and Crete” referred as “Digital unblocking of holy islands” and is co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)and by national funds of Greece and Cyprus, under the Cooperation Programme “INTERREG V-A Greece- Cyprus 2014-2020”.
... Moreover, most nonmovable heritages are exposed to the natural environment with limited protection, suffering from deformation and deterioration caused by weather or other physical or chemical reactions. Digitalizing these heritages and constructing digital libraries of the digitized materials are considered to be viable solutions to these problems (Evens & Hauttekeete, 2011;Piccialli & Chianese, 2017). Libraries, museums, and research organizations are currently developing collections of digitized heritages. ...
Digital libraries have been strategic in preserving and making non-movable cultural heritage information accessible to everyone with network connections. In light of their cultural and historical importance in the ancient “Silk Road,” murals and stone caves in Dunhuang, a remote city in northwest China,have been digitized, and the first batch of digitized visual materials has been made available to the general public through the e-Dunhuang digital library since May 2016. The aim of this study was to systematically evaluate e-Dunhuang from users’ perspectives, through usability testing with nine user tasks in different complexity levels and in-depth interviews with regard to a set of criteria in user experience. The results of quantitative analysis confirmed the overall effectiveness of e-Dunhuang in supporting user task completion and demonstrated significant improvements in several criteria over an earlier panorama collection of Dunhuang caves. The results of qualitative analysis revealed in-depth reasons for why participants felt satisfied with some criteria but had concerns with other criteria. Based on the findings, suggestions are proposed for further improvement in e-Dunhuang. As e-Dunhuang is a representative repository of digitized visual materials of cultural heritage, this study offers insights and empirical findings on user-centered evaluation of cultural heritage digital libraries.
... The traditional approach to the enhancement of the Cultural Heritage (CH) is based on the substantial separation between the stage of the recovery / restoration / conservation (RRC) and the stage of enjoyment by end-users of the output of the latter activities,[9]. This separation has so far also characterized the development and application of technologies in respectively, RRC and fruition. ...
This paper presents results of HeritageBot, a regional research project for developing a robotic platform to be used in Cultural Heritage frameworks. The design and a prototype of HBOT Platform for demo purposes is introduced with features of low-cost construction and user-oriented performance. The design requirements are presented for application in monitoring and working within frames for conservation of goods of Cultural Heritage with characteristics that are aimed for technological transfer and entrepreneurship plans.
Cultural heritage is one of many fields that has seen a significant digital transformation in the form of digitization and asset annotations for heritage preservation, inheritance, and dissemination. However, a lack of accurate and descriptive metadata in this field has an impact on the usability and discoverability of digital content, affecting cultural heritage platform visitors and resulting in an unsatisfactory user experience as well as limiting processing capabilities to add new functionalities. Over time, cultural heritage institutions were responsible for providing metadata for their collection items with the help of professionals, which is expensive and requires significant effort and time. In this sense, crowdsourcing can play a significant role in digital transformation or massive data processing, which can be useful for leveraging the crowd and enriching the metadata quality of digital cultural content. This paper focuses on a very important challenge faced by cultural heritage crowdsourcing platforms, which is how to attract users and make such activities enjoyable for them in order to achieve higher-quality annotations. One way to address this is to offer personalized interesting items based on each user preference, rather than making the user experience random and demanding. Thus, we present an image annotation recommendation system for users of cultural heritage platforms. The recommendation system design incorporates various technologies intending to help users in selecting the best matching images for annotations based on their interests and characteristics. Different classification methods were implemented to validate the accuracy of our work on Egyptian heritage.
Küreselleşme ve teknolojik gelişmelerin de etkisiyle yerel kültürler olumsuz etkilenmiş, kültürel değerler tek tipleşme, bağlamından koparılma, aşırı ticarileştirme tehditleri ile karşı karşıya kalmıştır. Ekonomik kaygılarla gelenekselliğin korunamaması, fabrikasyon üretime geçilmesi, turizmin bir araç değil, amaç olarak görülmesi sonucunda somut olmayan kültürel miras değerlerini korumak gün geçtikçe zorlaşmaktadır. Dolayısıyla söz konusu değerlerin korunması ve sürdürülebilirliğinin sağlanması bilimsel araştırmalara da konu olmuştur. Bu çalışmada hem somut olmayan kültürel miras ile ilgili hem de somut olmayan kültürel mirasın korunması ve sürdürülebilirliği ile ilgili ulusal yazında yer alan tez ve makaleler ele alınmıştır. Bu doğrultuda DergiPark, Google Akademik, EBSCO ve ULAKBİM veri tabanları ile YÖK Ulusal Tez Merkezi taranmış ve ulaşılan çalışmalar çeşitli ölçütlere göre incelenmiştir. Daha sonra bu çalışmalar içerisinden somut olmayan kültürel mirasın korunması ve sürdürülebilirliğine yönelik olan çalışmalar benzer ölçütlere göre değerlendirilmiştir. Tespit edilen çalışmaların incelenmesi sonucu elde edilen bulgular doğrultusunda tartışma ve önerilere yer verilmiştir.
In the context of today’s multicultural collision, Chinese calligraphy, as a symbol of China’s cultural soft power and one of the principal carriers of cultural production, faces significant challenges pertaining to questions of meaning and heritage valorization. Design is considered as a potent communication instrument with the capacity to improve cultural heritage values, whereas semiotics is a potent analytical paradigm that can provide novel insights into cultural challenges. To fully address the complexity of Chinese calligraphy, there is a research gap in the in-depth study of meaning in calligraphy through semiotic analysis. Additionally, a set of design methodologies to direct design applications must be developed. This study aims to identify and establish design approaches based on semiotic interpretation of the complexity of Chinese calligraphy in order to direct design projects toward the valorization of cultural heritage. The method is based on qualitative semiotic analysis, which could present the inherent complexity of calligraphy in terms of meaning trajectories, connecting the visible sign (pure graphic composition), the trace as related to the body of the calligrapher, and the peculiar object of calligraphy (the material frame), which is part of a media culture and, in the long tradition of China, power dynamics. The purpose of this paper is to provide suggestions for approaching the complexity of Chinese calligraphy in the context of design project development. Finally, we represent a design-oriented platform of principles that enables the development of more particular design projects in a variety of areas.KeywordsChinese calligraphySemioticsDesign-oriented platformValorization of culture heritage
Museum Universitas Kristen Maranatha telah resmi berdiri pada 16 Oktober 2015, bertepatan dengan nuansa Dies Natalis ke-50 Universitas Kristen Maranatha. Museum yang diberi nama “Museum Maranatha” menghadirkan koleksi benda-benda bersejarah berkaitan dengan perjalanan Universitas Kristen Maranatha sejak berdiri pada tahun 1965. Namun, Museum Maranatha masih memiliki kendala berupa terbatasnya akses pengunjung, terutama pada masa pandemi Covid-19. Di sisi lain, teknologi informasi serta media yang berkembang pesat pada saat ini dapat dimanfaatkan sebagai solusi atas terbatasnya akses pengunjung pada ruang publik. Hal ini yang kemudian melatarbelakangi penelitian ini sebagai upaya untuk menghadirkan ruang-ruang baru berwujud virtual, sehingga akses menjadi tidak terbatas sehingga tujuan penyebaran informasi dan edukasi mengenai pentingnya aspek sejarah berdirinya Universitas Kristen Maranatha dapat lebih luas diketahui oleh publik, khususnya dalam lingkup Universitas Kristen Maranatha. Metode yang digunakan adalah deskriptif kualitatif dengan menggunakan pendekatan purposive sampling dan snowballing dengan kriteria inklusi yang cukup terbatas dan memiliki ketertarikan terhadap museum maupun perkembangannya. Pengumpulan dan pengolahan data dari responden yang disebar secara ekslusif pada lingkup Universitas kristen Maranatha tersebut dijadikan bahan pertimbangan dalam proses perancangan konsep museum virtual Universitas Kristen Maranatha. Kata Kunci: Museum Maranatha, Museum Virtual, Universitas Kristen Maranatha
Building on the work series of Belitung VR, this article seeks to explore a narrative framework for digital cultural heritage storytelling. Belitung VR is a serious game to disseminate Belitung-related cultural knowledge in VR, where users can freely explore in the reconstructed Arab dhow shipping between China and West Asia to collect clues to the causes of the wreck. The proposed framework consists of narrative goals (the physical and meta-physical), narrative elements (character, world and plot), and narrative grammar (immersion, interaction, rhetoric and factuality). This work can serve as a practice guide and evaluative framework for designers/artists with an aspiration to digitally disseminate cultural heritage.
Many forms of Intangible Culture Heritage (ICH) are fast disappearing. The Lantern Festival is an important part of Chinese tradition and a critical ICH of Taiwan. However, few young people attend ICH activities. Given the importance of ICH education, this study describes what participants learned after lantern exhibitions that combined Augmented Reality (AR), mobile websites, and Paper-based Exhibition Brochures. This study evaluated what a cohort of college students (n = 115) learned about ICH through experiments and questionnaires. The results show that the public understood ICH better through digital technology. All participants thought that applying AR to ICH was good for the public to gain more information on lantern culture, although it took a lot of time to learn the new technology. The results also encouraged the application of AR to engage in ICH education. Therefore, a large number of digital technologies that are popular among young people should be used as part of ICH education in order to improve their cultural awareness and learning motivation.
Creating and sharing 3D digital replicas of archaeological sites online has become increasingly common. They are being integrated in excavation workflows, used to foster public engagement with the site, and provide communication and outreach of research, which now happen on digital media platforms. However, there has been little introspection by the community involved in the 3D documentation field, which has resulted in problematic practices. We critique the western paradigm of archaeological visualisation and propose recommendations for inclusive, decolonised visualisations of living heritage and archaeological places. To begin, we define in broad terms what an archaeological site is, and then we describe how these sites have been recorded and represented using the latest technology for digital re-production, namely laser scanning and photogrammetry. Following that we provide a critical analysis of current 3D visualisations of archaeological sites and develop an approach to ensure that the significance, meaning, and potency of archaeological and living heritage places are transferred to their digital replicas. Our case study at Ga-Mohana Hill in South Africa then offers practical approaches and methodologies that the fields of cultural heritage documentation and archaeological visualisation can employ to address their recurring issues as identified in the critical analysis. We present an online, interactive 3D digital replica of a living heritage and archaeological place that we believe responds appropriately to its political, cultural, and social context along with communicating its archaeological significance.
Considering that the field of culture has undergone a process of computerization and that this dynamic has generated a large volume of data in the virtual environment, it becomes an important task to turn to the forms of circulation and appropriation of this information. Therefore, a study was carried out on Lajedo da Soledade, an archaeological site located in Soledade, Apodi district, Rio Grande do Norte. Through these studies, we collected inputs on heritage education, in which they were used to mapping the knowledge of Lajedo in order to support learning in the school and non-school field. In order to map the entire collection and make it freely available to the public (school and non-school), it was necessary to develop a technology capable of storing all the data, inferring them and later, through them, generating knowledge. In this way, this research presents an ontology called OntoHedu for the modeling of the archeological patrimony domain. Its specification was based on the knowledge extracted from the literature review and from the case study at the archaeological site. A Web application called WebHedu has been developed and integrated with OntoHedu to disseminate, share, search and retrieve information through its functionalities, serving as interface to the subjects who use it. The validation of the artifacts was carried out together with the specialists of the archaeological site through the acceptance model of technology TAM.
Impact of Historic Storytelling through Museum.Focus of the study is to understand the technological development through storytelling in museum.
Morocco is endowed with an intangible cultural heritage of great interest at the global level, to which Moroccan craftsmanship, for which it is widely known internationally, makes a significant contribution. In today's, the notion of heritage is continuously expanding, experiencing an almost unlimited extension. The intangible heritage increasingly occupies a prominent place in the planning of several bodies, whose aim is to raise awareness among nations of the need to protect their cultural diversity and to help them to develop projects for the safeguarding and preservation of this category of heritage. The majority of marketing research has not addressed the issue of the relationship between social media communication and the promotion of intangible cultural heritage in the sense that there is an information deficit in addressing this issue. The concept of social media communication represents for professionals a lever of great importance since it has become indispensable to a good marketing strategy. It constitutes, in the context of research, a real tool for the promotion of intangible cultural heritage and the enhancement of territories. The main objective of this article is to explore the concept of intangible cultural heritage given the great importance it represents and its relationship with social media communication in the Moroccan context, especially in the promotion, transmission and even the safeguarding of this wealth. The study used a multidisciplinary exploratory in the fields of media communication and territorial marketing. Thus, the study focused on the two concepts: intangible cultural heritage and communication through social media, while analysing the nature of their interrelation in general and more specifically the relationship between communication through social media and the promotion of Marrakech handicrafts as part of Morocco's intangible cultural heritage. The results of this empirical study of an exploratory nature, conducted among 14 experts operating in the Moroccan handicrafts sector, demonstrated the existence of a strong relationship between the use of social media communication and the promotion of Moroccan intangible cultural heritage and more specifically the intangible cultural heritage of the city of Marrakech through the development and enhancement of its handicraft products. Keywords communication, intangible cultural heritage, Marrakech, Moroccan craftsmanship, social media.
For more than a decade, User eXperience (UX) has grown into a core concept of Human--Computer Interaction (HCI) and has been widely disseminated and accepted in the HCI community. At the same time, Cultural Heritage (CH) has been a favored domain for UX research, while the visitor is able to exploit CH material before, during, and after the visit, having different goals and requirements in each phase. Thus, CH organisations need to carefully explore the potential of investing in UX, as visitor satisfaction and intention to return and spread positive word-of-mouth is closely linked to the destination's overall success. A multitude of methods for UX analysis exist, but a clear overview of the current state of the available UX research methods in CH is missing. Recent studies [Othman 2012; Roussou 2018] have successfully developed frameworks to measure UX in cultural spaces, but most of them still lack understanding about how visitors interact with new technologies and simultaneously with the exhibits. In this article, a survey that describes the conceptual frameworks, models, research methodologies, and paradigms of incorporating Cultural User eXperience (CUX) in applications is reported, as well as the overall interaction between UX and CH and the related aspects that are influenced by the CH application domain and the parameters leading to optimization of the CUX. The outcome of this survey lays ground for understanding and defining the concept of UX research in CH, while current challenges and issues for future work are discussed.
The traditional Chinese flower arrangement as a national intangible cultural heritage has high historical value and artistic value, with the increasing demand of user’s emotional needs for interactive experience, its popularity, and interaction are relatively limited. In the information age of the rapid development of new media technology, using digital technology to protect and inherit this excellent intangible cultural traditional art has far-reaching significance and it has high theoretical value for developing the history and innovation of traditional flower arranging art. Based on the augmented reality technology of intelligent mobile terminal, the article integrates the digital resources of flower arranging art from the perspective of satisfying the user’s emotional needs, restore the art of flower arranging classic works, and enhance user interaction experience. Build an operable digital virtual flower arranging application system that transcends time and space, the combination of traditional flower arranging art and new media communication platform can form a three-dimensional digital “new ecosystem” for the dissemination and protection of intangible cultural heritage.
In recent years, studies on intangible cultural heritage (ICH) have substantially increased as the subject has received extensive attention from scholars. This study collected all the papers (249) on ICH from the Web of Science (WoS) core database. CiteSpace analysis software was used for the bibliometric analysis of all papers, and the results of the analysis of literature clustering, scientific research collaboration, co-citations, and so on were visually displayed. The results show that there is not substantial collaboration among researchers, research institutions, or countries that conduct research on ICH. The relationship between high-yield and high-citation authorship is inconsistent and weak. High-yield countries are mainly concentrated in a small group that includes China, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The research has mainly focused on heritage protection, heritage space, heritage management, heritage policy, and the internationalization of heritage. In recent years, the focus of research has been on creative heritage tourism, community participation in heritage protection and development, and the authenticity of heritage.
Confucianism is commonly defined as “... a system of philosophical, ethical and political thought based on the teachings of Confucius,” which originated through the teachings of Confucius during the sixth-century BCE. It is a way of life or a philosophy of human nature that considers human relationships as the foundation of the society. Confucius teachings had highly influenced the development of several cultures in Asia, making Confucianism an intangible cultural heritage. In this paper, we are re-acquainting users with an intangible heritage that is part of their everyday, by developing a system that permits experiencing Confucius teachings virtually and interactively. The system can measure philosophical intent of the human and generate meaningful philosophical answers. It is also aimed for intergenerational sharing of Confucius heritage through a simple interactive process with the virtual sage making the experience enjoyable and entertaining. Previous research in natural language processing (NLP) mainly focused on the understanding and delivering of human natural language accurately. In this research, we explored how to apply NLP to model the knowledge and teachings of Confucius, through the natural conversation between human and computer. This virtual Confucius, a chat agent that generates outputs based on Confucius teachings, using a series of algorithms and techniques to improve the matching accuracy between user input and computer output, introduces a novel way of interacting with intangible cultures. Our user evaluation results revealed that there is a positive correlation between relevance and enjoyment, finding their experiences interacting with virtual Confucius very encouraging. Adults who participated in experiencing the virtual Confucius together with their children believed that this system has the potential to improve intergenerational interactions through shared play.
The visual/image is very good expression in the cultural heritage domain. Visual archive is one of the recording techniques for cultural heritage along with the static image like a picture and the reports documenting contents in literature. One category of lively image is infographic which usually created and shared by using ICT. The infographics are widely used nowadays because the people need less time to summarize all the needed information. There is the massive amount of information flooding, especially on the internet. However, there is pretty of not so good designed infographic which has been published in the social media. So the evaluation approach is about how user distinct the bad infographics from the good infographics, also user can evaluate infographics and improve them before launch them through media. This research aims to draw the essential summary according to the important issue of infographic evaluation, for the audience can find the way to improve and create the better infographics. The paper introduces the communication theories and classifies the template types of infographics of the static and interactive infographic. The questions of evaluation dimensions bundle into the three core foundation of the infographic which are Visual, Content, and Knowledge.
The recent technological development has opened up innovative scenarios in the field of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) education and preservation. Main aim of this paper is to present a study, whose objective was to investigate whether and to what extent technologies can play a role in the ICH preservation and education. The study was conducted in the context of i-Treasures, a project funded by the European Community. During the project, a platform has been created, which provides different types of services that can meet the demands of different types of users in the ICH education domain. In the paper, the process followed for the implementation of such platform is described, starting from the analysis of the user needs, down to the development of the various innovative features. These encompass not only informative functionalities but—even more importantly—features allowing sensorimotor learning experiences for the user, who—by wearing innovative sensors—can practice rare forms of dancing or singing and get feedback about the correctness of the performance. The paper presents the methodology and findings of the user evaluation and then points out the main strong points and weaknesses of using innovative technologies in the ICH preservation and education.
With a large amount of data (e.g., ratings and feedbacks) obtained from social media (e.g., TripAdvisor), smart tourism applications and services have been studied to understand the contexts of users. More particularly, in this work, we have been focusing on “cultural tourism” service by automatically identifying and ranking cultural things (e.g., historical places). The main aims of this research are (1) to identify useful cultural heritage resources from geotagged social media (more precisely, spatial folksonomy), and (2) to rank them, with respect to the user context (e.g., location). Thus, the smart cultural tourism service can deliver smart interactions between the visitors of smart tourism environments by collecting and analyzing geotagged multimedia data (e.g., photos, tags, and comments) from available social media. In order to evaluate the proposed service, the system has been implemented with the real-world datasets related to cultural heritage sites (e.g., Hue, Hoi An, My Son in Vietnam, and Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung, Gyeongju in Korea).
This paper presents the design, implementation, use and evaluation of a tangible data souvenir for an interactive museum exhibition. We define a data souvenir as the materialisation of the personal visiting experience: a data souvenir is dynamically created on the basis of data recorded throughout the visit and therefore captures and represents the experience as lived. The souvenir provides visitors with a memento of their visit and acts as a gateway to further online content. A step further is to enable visitors to contribute, in other words the data souvenir can become a means to collect visitor-generated content. We discuss the rationale behind the use of a data souvenir, the design process and resulting artefacts, and the implementation of both the data souvenir and online content system. Finally, we examine the installation of the data souvenirs as part of a long-lasting exhibition: the use of this souvenir by visitors has been logged over 7 months and issues around the gathering of user-generated content in such a way are discussed.
The cultural heritage could benefit significantly from the integration of wearable augmented reality (AR). This technology has the potential to guide the user and provide her with both in-depth information, without distracting her from the context, and a natural interaction, which can further allow her to explore and navigate her way through a huge amount of cultural information. The integration of touchless interaction and augmented reality is particularly challenging. On the technical side, the human–machine interface has to be reliable so as to guide users across the real world, which is composed of cluttered backgrounds and severe changes in illumination conditions. On the user experience side, the interface has to provide precise interaction tools while minimizing the perceived task difficulty. In this study, an interactive wearable AR system to augment the environment with cultural information is described. To confer robustness to the interface, a strategy that takes advantage of both depth and color data to find the most reliable information on each single frame is introduced. Moreover, the results of an ISO 9241-9 user study performed in both indoor and outdoor conditions are presented and discussed. The experimental results show that, by using both depth and color data, the interface can behave consistently in different indoor and outdoor scenarios. Furthermore, the results show that the presence of a virtual pointer in the augmented visualization significantly reduces the users error rate in selection tasks.
Museum curators and personnel are interested in understanding what is happening at their museum: what exhibitions and exhibits do visitors attend to, what exhibits visitors spend most time at, what hours of the day are most busy at certain areas in the museum and more. We use automatic tracking of visitors’ position, movements and interaction at the museum to log visitor information. Using this information, we provide an interface that visualizes individual and small group movement patterns, presentations watched, and aggregated information of overall visitor engagement at the museum. We utilized a user centered design approach in which we gathered requirements, iteratively designed and implemented a working prototype and evaluated it with the help of domain experts (museum curators and other museum personnel). We describe our efforts and provide insights from the design and evaluation of our system, and outline how it might be generalized for other indoor domains such as supermarkets or shopping malls.
The Internet of Things (IoT) and Smart Spaces technologies enable development of new information services operating with descriptions of museum exhibits and available cultural heritage knowledge. In this paper, we introduce a smart museum concept where information services are not limited with straightforward provision of record-based description of exhibits, as it happens in traditional museum information systems. The concept is based on services with high intelligence level when additional historical sources can be used to semantically enrich the museum collection, including knowledge acquired from visitors and museum professionals. A museum becomes a cultural space where its semantic layer makes knowledge usable and creatable by visitors and professionals. Our research focus is on applying this concept to the case study of the History Museum of Petrozavodsk State University. A concept prototype is created, as a mandatory development phase of complex systems engineering, to analyze the need, feasibility, and technical approach. The concept prototype follows the smart spaces approach for IoT environments and defines design solutions for creating a semantic infrastructure that transforms a given museum into its smart variant.
Many enchanting cultural heritage locations are hidden from tourists, especially when considering countries full of historic attractions. Tourists tend to consider only mainstream monuments and towns, neglecting wonderful little jewels along their travel itinerary. However, this is generally not their fault, as travelers cannot be aware of all the surrounding beauties when visiting a new region. To this aim, we discuss and analyze here PhotoTrip, an interactive tool able to autonomously recommend charming, even if not mainstream, cultural heritage locations along travel itineraries. PhotoTrip is able to identify these points of interest by gathering pictures and related information from Flickr and Wikipedia and then provide the user with suggestions and recommendations. An important technical challenge for this kind of services is the ability to provide only the most relevant pictures among the many available for any considered itinerary. To this aim, we have exploited social networks, crowdsourcing and gamification to involve users in the process of improving the response quality of our system.
The paper presents an infomobility system (Tourist Assistant—TAIS) for supporting tourists in a region. The system solves both main tasks related to the infomobility concept: user actions analysis, preferences revealing, cultural heritage recommendation based on the preferences and current situation in the region, and provides the user with possible transportation means to reach the corresponding cultural heritage. Multimedia information about the cultural heritage includes: text description and images, and videos extracted from accessible Internet sources (such as Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, Panoramio and YouTube). The system consists of a set of services joined together by a smart space that provides possibilities to organize semantic-based information exchange between these services using ontology-based approach. Services share information for joint solving the tourist’s task with the smart space. This information forms cultural space that is a model of physical space where the tourist is. The list of cultural heritage provided to the tourist is ordered by the special recommendation service that implements the ranking based on the collaborative filtering technique. Recommendations are based on ratings set by the tourists that use the system. To provide the tourist with different transportation means, the special transportation service has been developed. This service calls a taxi, finds ridesharing possibilities or calculates multimodal route by public transport based on the tourist preferences. The paper describes the service-based system architecture, services development, their ontologies, and implementation and evaluation. The prototype of the developed system is accessible for download in the Google Play market for Android device users.
With the rapid development of wireless networks, mobile technology and sensing technology, context-aware ubiquitous learning (u-learning), which allows anytime and anywhere learning, has been widely discussed and investigated in recent years. It has been proven by several studies that situating students to learn from the real world, such as in museums, with u-learning systems is beneficial to them. However, the traditional context-aware ubiquitous learning environment suffers from some physical limitations. For example, the capacity of the learning targets is limited, and moving time for reaching the learning targets is required. These physical limitations may affect students’ learning efficiency. To create a more efficient ubiquitous learning environment, a novel learning framework, namely blended context-aware ubiquitous learning (b-learning), is proposed in this paper. A navigation algorithm, B-MONS, is also proposed for the novel learning framework to guide students to learn efficiently in the b-learning environment. Based on the proposed b-learning framework, a blended context-aware ubiquitous learning system, BCAULS, with a navigation support mechanism based on B-MONS was designed and developed. To compare the efficacy of this new proposed framework with other learning platforms, a field experiment of the learning activity, “Rocks and Fossils,” was conducted in the National Museum of Natural Science, Taiwan. The experiment results indicate that the students performed better in the b-learning environment than in the u-learning and e-learning environments.
Cultural Heritage is a domain in which new technologies and services have a special impact on people approach to its spaces. Technologies are changing the role of such spaces, allowing a more in-depth knowledge diffusion and social interactions. Static places become dynamic cultural environments in which people can discover and share new knowledge. Nowadays, Cultural Heritage is approaching to a new digital era in which people become active elements, as recipients of the actions ensuring the sustainability of such heritage, both moneywise but also simply as the perceived quality of life.
In this perspective, this paper presents a novel recommender system to individual and people group in order to create a social recommendation service for cultural ICT applications. As key aspect of the presented work, we introduce a method for discovering and exploiting social affinity between users based on artwork features and user experience. In addition, we propose an architecture of the recommender system related with the affinity and discuss the architecture in terms of sparsity, group recommendation, and sustainability.