SkyLineDroid: An Outdoor Mobile Augmented Reality Application for Virtual Heritage

Cultural tourism could greatly benefit from recent advances in technology, in particular in the field of mobile devices. This paper presents SkyLineDroid, an application of Virtual Heritage where Augmented Reality is used on mobile phones to support visitors of outdoor cultural heritage sites. Virtual and real world are overlaid on the device screen, according to device position and orientation, in order to immerse users in the 3D historical reconstruction of ancient buildings. Furthermore, a wealth of available multimedia information, related to each virtual element, is available and can be accessed by visitors according to their own interest and curiosity. Therefore, users are provided with a complete multimedia cultural guide which allows them to assume an active role in their journey through history. A prototypal implementation, based on the history of one of the most famous boulevards of Las Vegas, the Strip, is presented in this article. However, the structure of SkyLineDroid is very flexible and can be easily adapted to other cultural heritage sites. Key-Words: Virtual Heritage, Augmented Reality, Mobile devices, Multimedia, Cultural Tourism

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