Outdoors mobile augmented reality application visualizing 3D reconstructed historical monuments

Summarization: We present a mobile Augmented Reality (AR) tourist guide to be utilized while walking around cultural heritage sites located in the Old town of the city of Chania, Crete, Greece. Instead of the traditional static images or text presented by mobile, location-aware tourist guides, the main focus is to seamlessly and transparently superimpose geo-located 3D reconstructions of historical buildings, in their past state, onto the real world, while users hold their consumer grade mobile phones walking on-site, without markers placed onto the buildings, offering a Mobile Augmented Reality experience. we feature three monuments; e.g., the ‘GialiTzamisi’, an Ottoman mosque; part of the south side of a Byzantine Wall and the ‘Saint Rocco’ Venetian chapel. Advances in mobile technology have brought AR to the public by utilizing the camera, GPS and inertial sensors present in modern smart phones. Technical challenges such as accurate registration of 3D and real world, in outdoors settings, have prevented AR becoming main stream. We tested commercial AR frameworks and built a mobile AR app which offers users, while visiting these monuments in the challenging outdoors environment, a virtual reconstruction displaying the monument in its past state superimposed onto the real world. Position tracking is based on the mobile phone’s GPS and inertial sensors. The users explore interest areas and unlock historical information, earning points. By combining AR technologies with location-aware, gamified and social aspects, we enhance interaction with cultural heritage sites.Παρουσιάστηκε στο: 4th International Conference on Geographical Information Systems Theory, Applications and Managemen