5 Reasons Why Museums Are Using AR Technology

Eva Triantafillopoulou

We invited a specialized digital agency, and Premium Partner, to share some of the main reasons why they invest in and continue to work with AR technology when creating museum applications. Enjoy the read!

Guest post by premium partner Wezit Transmedia Solutions

It is no secret that more and more institutions are using alternative marketing tools and technologies, such as augmented reality (AR), to adapt to, connect to and perhaps even to captivate audiences. Fact is, the new generation is consuming information differently, so to create a personal and intimate connection there has to be a ‘wow’ effect.

As a digital agency, Wezit has been purposefully using augmented reality to help several museums effectively get their messages across. In this post, we will share the main reasons why museums, heritage sites, and many other cultural institutions are adopting and incorporating AR technology into their offerings.

The 5 main reasons why museums are (or should be!) using AR technology

1) AR is engaging

Good stories blended with good AR experiences make knowledge reach out to more audiences. When exciting facts are displayed with AR, users become more connected and thus more interested in learning, informally, about themes and sub-themes.

AR is enticing the new generation to actively participate in the learning process. By scanning targets and locations, museum visitors can better understand complex relations and processes, reconstruct the past, visualize the future, interact with augmentations and share the experience and knowledge along the way.

Museums can include many different types of AR features into their projects, depending on what the institution has envisioned for a specific tour, exhibition or topic. And the augmented content itself can flexibly be presented in the form of video, 3D augmentations, audio, text and more.

2) AR brings artifacts to life

Museums typically tend to present static exhibitions. And this is quite understandable since one of their primary purposes, apart from spreading knowledge, is to preserve and protect their valuable pieces. AR has the ability to change this motionless characteristic.

By adding and layering digital augmentations over a point of interest,  museums can provide rich and detailed access to artwork and artifacts. With AR features, museums can bring life to works of art, science concepts, architectural details, and other elements we take for granted, by revealing it in a different and expanded perspective. This not only helps to describe the object in question but also responds to the story behind an era, a style, an influence, allowing users to really intensify their discovery.  

3) AR is fun and interactive

Many museums attract families and young visitors by adding a little fun and play to their exhibits. This is an effective win-win tactic, and AR gaming is the new way to do so. By integrating some playful AR elements into family-oriented games, families can play and learn together around a city, a garden, a museum or other locations.

Think Pokémon Go adapted to museum purposes. With the right AR app, museum visitors, both young and new, can engage in interactive and rewarding exploration missions together, learning, sharing and having lots of fun along the way.  In short, adding a little AR is an easy way to capture an entire family.

4) AR is readily available and easily accessible

AR experiences can run on most existing smart devices and do not require extra equipment to work. Those not living under a rock, most likely know how common such devices are in practically everyone’s modern daily lives. This means that even though AR may not yet be as widely known as virtual reality (VR), for example, it has the potential to become a much more used, and much more world-changing technology.

Additionally, since AR can more naturally be added into daily life scenarios, many studies predict that augmented reality has the potential to change many aspects involved in cultural site visitation. Forward-thinking museums know this and are already taking action by adding AR technology to their exhibitions.

5) AR gives visitors an extra reason to visit – and revisit

Let’s face it, if museums want their audiences to come back, they have to give a good reason for them to do so. Since AR can be combined with other technologies, museums are increasingly using it to refresh outdated exhibitions.

By adding a digital layer of fresh interactive content on top of the existing physical display, museums can offer their visitors a modern and attractive reason to visit and revisit their compounds.

With AR, you can transform your museum or cultural institution exhibition, no matter the field of study or size, into a memorable experience that will stay in the mind of the visitor – in the form of digital and non-digital treasures!

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