Visitor Perceptions Of Augmented Reality In Science Museums

Augmented reality (AR) is a new technology that has recently been gaining popularity in museums. In an ongoing debate about the role of technology in museums amongst museum professionals, one voice has been largely absent: visitors. Research has been conducted on how individuals learn from augmented reality, but little has been done to understand museum visitor perceptions of augmented reality. The purpose of this study was to explore how visitors describe the value and role of AR experiences in science museums. A secondary purpose is to explore the extent to which AR changes visitors’ impressions of that institution. This study was a qualitative survey conducted on 51 adult visitors at two science museums–Pacific Science Center in Seattle, WA and the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, CA—both of whom have augmented reality experiences. Findings suggest that visitors value the use of AR in science museum settings, particularly as an educational tool that engages and entertains its users. Additionally, visitors feel their AR experience has enhanced their perception of the institution as being more modern and up-to-date. This study contributes to the body of knowledge about best practices associated with augmented reality in museums, and raises several cautions associated with incorporating AR into a museum exhibit.

Due to the growing prevalence of artificial intelligence technologies, schools, museums, and art galleries will need to change traditional ways of working and conventional thought processes to fully embrace their potential. Integrating virtual and augmented reality technologies and wearable devices into these fields can promote higher engagement in an increasingly digital world. Virtual and Augmented Reality in Education, Art, and Museums is an essential research book that explores the strategic role and use of virtual and augmented reality in shaping visitor experiences at art galleries and museums and their ability to enhance education. Highlighting a range of topics such as online learning, digital heritage, and gaming, this book is ideal for museum directors, tour developers, educational software designers, 3D artists, designers, curators, preservationists, conservationists, education coordinators, academicians, researchers, and students.

This book presents a collection of the latest research in the area of immersive technologies, presented at the International Augmented and Virtual Reality Conference 2018 in Manchester, UK, and showcases how augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are transforming the business landscape. Innovations in this field are seen as providing opportunities for businesses to offer their customers unique services and experiences. The papers gathered here advance the state of the art in AR/VR technologies and their applications in various industries such as healthcare, tourism, hospitality, events, fashion, entertainment, retail, education and gaming. The volume collects contributions by prominent computer and social sciences experts from around the globe. Addressing the most significant topics in the field of augmented and virtual reality and sharing the latest findings, it will be of interest to academics and practitioners alike.

The papers presented in this volume advance the state-of-the-art research on digital marketing and social media, mobile computing and responsive web design, semantic technologies and recommender systems, augmented and virtual reality, electronic distribution and online travel reviews, MOOC and eLearning, eGovernment and sharing economy. This book covers the most significant areas contributed by prominent scholars from around the world and is suitable for both academics and practitioners who are interested in the latest developments in eTourism.

This book provides extensive research into the use of augmented reality in the three interconnected and overlapping fields of the tourism industry, museum exhibitions, and cultural heritage. It is written by a virtual team of 50 leading researchers and practitioners from 16 countries around the world. The authors explore the opportunities and challenges of augmented reality applications, their current status and future trends, informal learning and heritage preservation, mixed reality environments and immersive installations, cultural heritage education and tourism promotion, visitors with special needs, and emerging post-COVID-19 museums and heritage sites. Augmented Reality in Tourism, Museums and Heritage: A New Technology to Inform and Entertain is essential reading not only for researchers, application developers, educators, museum curators, tourism and cultural heritage promoters, but also for students (both graduates and undergraduates) and anyone who is interested in the efficient and practical use of augmented reality technology.

This is the second edition ofJohn H. Falk and Lynn D. Dierking’s ground-breaking book, Learning from Museums. While the book still focuses on why, how, what, when, and with whom, people learn from their museum experiences, the authors further investigate the extension of museums beyond their walls and the changing perceptions of the roles that museums increasingly play in the 21st century with respect to the publics they serve (and those they would like to serve). This new edition offers an updated and synthesized version of the Contextual Model of Learning, as well as the latest advances in free-choice learning research, theory and practice, in order to provide readers a highly readable and informative understanding of the personal, sociocultural and physical dimensions of the museum experience. Falk and Dierking also fill in gaps in the 1st edition. Falk’s research focuses increasingly on the self-related needs that museums meet, and these findings enhance the personal context chapter. Dierking’s work delves deeply into the macro-sociocultural dimensions of learning, a topic not discussed in the sociocultural chapter in the first edition. Emphasizing the importance of time (and space), the second edition adds an entirely new chapter to describe the important dimension of time. They also insert findings from the burgeoning field of neuroscience. Latter chapters of the book discuss the evolving role of museums in the rapidly changing Information /Learning Society of the 21st century. New examples and suggestions highlight the ways that the new understandings of learning can help museum practitioners reinvent how museums can and should support the public’s lifelong, life-wide and life-deep learning.

Although art museums are increasingly exploring the use of interactive technology to engage visitors, very little research has explored visitor perceptions of these technologies and the specific strategies employed through the technology to achieve increased engagement. This study investigates visitor perceptions of personalization strategies in art museum interactive technology, using interviews conducted with average museum visitors to understand their perceptions of technologies that attempt to make the visitor’s experience more personal and unique. Thirty-four visitors were interviewed in Gallery One at the Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, Ohio. Results show that personalization did matter to museum visitors in the Gallery One space, but that despite the technology’s perceived value among visitors, most visitors did not engage with the personalization features. These results expand the available research on interactive technology in art museums, suggesting visitors value personalization features, and calling for further research into the difference between valuation and use.

This book is intended to provide teachers and researchers with a wide range of ideas from researchers working to integrate the new technology of Augmented Reality into educational settings and processes.

This book presents state-of-the-art research into the application of information and communication technologies to travel and tourism. The range of topics covered is broad, encompassing digital marketing and social media, mobile computing and web design, semantic technologies and recommender systems, augmented and virtual reality, electronic distribution and online travel reviews, MOOC and eLearning, eGovernment, and the sharing economy. There is a particular focus on the development of digital strategies, the impact of big data, and the digital economy. In addition to the description of research advances and innovative ideas, readers will find a number of informative industrial case studies. The contents of the book are based on the 2017 ENTER eTourism conference, held in Rome. The volume will be of interest to all academics and practitioners who wish to keep abreast of the latest developments in eTourism.

The three-volume set CCIS 1224, CCIS 1225, and CCIS 1226 contains the extended abstracts of the posters presented during the 21st International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCII 2020, which took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, in July 2020.* HCII 2020 received a total of 6326 submissions, of which 1439 papers and 238 posters were accepted for publication in the pre-conference proceedings after a careful reviewing process. The 238 papers presented in these three volumes are organized in topical sections as follows: Part I: design and evaluation methods and tools; user characteristics, requirements and preferences; multimodal and natural interaction; recognizing human psychological states; user experience studies; human perception and cognition. -AI in HCI. Part II: virtual, augmented and mixed reality; virtual humans and motion modelling and tracking; learning technology. Part III: universal access, accessibility and design for the elderly; smartphones, social media and human behavior; interacting with cultural heritage; human-vehicle interaction; transport, safety and crisis management; security, privacy and trust; product and service design. *The conference was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.