Augmenting cultural experience : Evaluating the use of augmented reality technology to enhance the visitor experience at a historic site

Recently, museums and historic sites have begun reaching out beyond their traditional audience groups, using more innovative digital display technology to find and attract a new audience. Virtual, mixed, and augmented reality technologies are becoming more ubiquitous in our society and “virtual history” exhibits are starting to be available to the public. The authors have undertaken multiple experiments at a historic fort in upstate New York, evaluating digital display technology used by site visitors. The paper also contains a discussion of the potential benefits and problems of designing interactive virtual museum/heritage displays, based on standard usability guidelines.