History Rediscovered:

Augmented Reality at Museums

By: Hannah Wallis
History Rediscovered: Augmented Reality at Museums - White Paper

Introduction
Augmented reality is emerging technology that has the potential to drastically improve the current state
of museums and ancient ruins. Augmented reality takes what already exists and adds layers of
information and/or design over it. This technology gives people access to more information about what
they are seeing. This is why it is so powerful and useful for museums. Augmented reality can be used as
a new way of discovering and teaching history.

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History Rediscovered: Augmented Reality at Museums - White Paper

Market Drivers
We live in a new world surrounded by advancing technology. This new technology is being
implemented in many places throughout the world. Museums implementing new technology and having
a digital presence is important. The most important market driver leading to augmented reality in
museums is the evolving technological world.

Another major market driver is the emphasis on education (Bitter 2014). Augmented reality vastly helps
to communicate the visual aspects of the past which will ultimately allow for a better understanding of all
aspects of history. Many missions of museums are about educating and spreading knowledge of
different times and cultures. Augmented reality can help museums achieve that goal.

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History Rediscovered: Augmented Reality at Museums - White Paper

History
Augmented reality has been around for some time now. However, it is still seen as a new technology
because the recent strides in improving it have been innovative. One famous example of augmented
reality is the “Pokémon Go” app. This app was popular around 2016 and sparked new interest in
augmented reality.

Museums Using Augmented Reality

Museums have also taken advantage of this technology. For example, museums like the National
Museum of Singapore and the Smithsonian have started creating exhibits that use augmented reality
effectively.

Impact of Using Augmented Reality

Museums that have begun using augmented reality have not only opened the door to using and
innovating this technology, they have also gained publicity and sparked interested in their exhibits. For
example, as stated in Billock’s (2017) article, the unique and intriguing aspect of these exhibits bring the
“exhibits and artifacts to life in new ways”.

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History Rediscovered: Augmented Reality at Museums - White Paper

Singapore’s Story of the Forest Exhibit

The Story of the Forest exhibit at the National Museum of Singapore combines art, history, and
technology beautifully in a way that keeps people engaged and teaches them. The National Museum of
Singapore collaborated with the renowned
teamLab to complete this excellent exhibit.

This display is located in a single room with

murals depicting animals and life on all of the
walls. When people walk into the exhibit, they
are immediately greeted to the beautiful
artwork. Visitors download the Story of the
Forest app which allows them to see the art
around them come to life (Story of the Forest).
This fascinating display is engaging and
informative.

This beautiful display captures the entire concept of augmented reality at museums perfectly: to gain
interest, to keep people engaged, and to share knowledge.

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History Rediscovered: Augmented Reality at Museums - White Paper

Smithsonian Skin and Bones

One way in which the Smithsonian has
implemented augmented reality into their
museum is through bones.

The Smithsonian has creatively used

augmented reality to bring fossils to life.
Visitors download the Skin and Bones app and
use the app to see the characteristics of the
animals of the fossils they are looking at. These
animations teach people by visually showing
them the animal (Bone Hall).

This display shows the immense value in augmented reality at museums. The technology shows visitors
something they couldn’t possibly have seen visually without it. The reconstruction of skin and fur over
bone helps people to better understand the animal they are looking at and its features.

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History Rediscovered: Augmented Reality at Museums - White Paper

Tour of Rome
Ancient sites have also begun using augmented reality to rebuild ancient structures. By reconstructing
these buildings, people can see how the building was made and what it looked like before. In Rome,
there is even an augmented reality tour in which people can see the reconstructions of the ancient ruins
throughout Rome (Ancient Rome Augmented-Reality Tour by Night in Ancient Forum).

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History Rediscovered: Augmented Reality at Museums - White Paper

Growth in 2018
Augmented reality has slowly started to become popular and many museums are already looking into
adding the concept, if they haven’t already. In Pardes’ (2018) article, you can see the importance of
augmented reality and how many people believe that it is the next major stride in communication at
museums.

As augmented reality has grown, the technology has become cheaper and the apps have become easier
to create. This is one of the reasons why the technology can be seen throughout many museum exhibits
and is growing in 2018 (Pardes 2018).

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History Rediscovered: Augmented Reality at Museums - White Paper

Augmented Reality Solution’s Benefits

Augmented reality has many potential benefits. These benefits apply not only to the museums, but also
to the tourists and sightseers. Museums that implement augmented reality connect more with the world
of technology, create exciting exhibits, teach history more effectively, and may profit from these
exhibits.

Visual Representation Real-Time Rebuilding Increase in Tourism

Augmented reality gives Augmented reality rebuilds Augmented reality makes

people an example visually
of what something would
have looked like. This allows
people to truly understand
historical objects.
images by overlaying design.
This allows people to see the
reality of what once was
compared to what it now is.
learning about history and
other cultures more
engaging and fun. This can
lead to more tourism and
exciting exhibits.

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History Rediscovered: Augmented Reality at Museums - White Paper

Augmented Reality Solution

How Augmented Reality Works in Museums
As already mentioned before, augmented reality takes reality and adds information to it. This usually
involves the use of a smartphone’s camera. Many museums have made apps themselves to implement
augmented reality. The National Museum of Singapore has made an app for its Story of the Forest
exhibit and the Smithsonian has made an app for its Skin and Bones exhibit. These apps use software to
read what a camera is looking at and compare that to a database that tells it what to show.

How to Implement Augmented Reality

Some tech companies are starting to work with museums to create these exhibits (Pardes 2018).
However, you can make an app on your own. The idea of creating an app on your own may sound
impossible, but it is not so difficult. Simple steps can smooth the process of creating your own app.
1. Gather funding and consider cost
2. Decide on which exhibit to recreate
3. Decide on creating a marker-based app, which uses image recognition, or a location-based
app, which uses location (Zhuravlov-Galchenko 2018)
4. Contact and hire a software development team and design team
5. Create the app
6. Test the app
7. Make the app available on iTunes, Google Play, and other app stores
8. Prepare the exhibit

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History Rediscovered: Augmented Reality at Museums - White Paper

Discover Augmented Reality

In conclusion, augmented reality is worth discovering and exploring. It is innovative technology that can
improve the communication of museums. This technology changes the perspective of education and the
spread of knowledge. Augmented reality allows you to be creative. It allows you to recreate history and
share it with others in a profound way.

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History Rediscovered: Augmented Reality at Museums - White Paper

References
Billock, J. (2017). Five Augmented Reality Experiences that Bring Museum Exhibits to Life. Smithsonian.com. Retrieved
From: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/expanding-exhibits-augmented-reality-180963810/
Pardes, A. (2018). For Museums, Augmented Reality is the Next Frontier. Wired.com Retrieved From:
https://www.wired.com/story/museums-augmented-reality-next-frontier/
Bitter, G., Corral, A. (2014). The Pedagogical Potential of Augmented Reality Apps. International Journal of Engineering
Science Invention. Volume 3 Issue 10. Retrieved From:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267153854_The_Pedagogical_Potential_of_Augmented_Reality_Apps
Zhuravlov-Galchenko, A. (2018). Six Top Tools to Build Augmented Reality Mobile Apps. Infoq.com Retrieved From:
https://www.infoq.com/articles/augmented-reality-best-skds
Story of the Forest. Retrieved From: https://www.nationalmuseum.sg/our-exhibitions/exhibition-list/story-of-the-forest
Bone Hall. Smithsonian. Retrieved From: https://naturalhistory.si.edu/exhibits/bone-hall
Ancient Rome Augmented-Reality Tour by Night in Ancient Forum. Musment.com. Retrieved From:
https://www.musement.com/us/rome/ancient-rome-augmented-reality-tour-by-night-in-ancient-forum-10533/

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