The visitor as virtual archaeologist

Abstract

SHAPE, Situating Hybrid Assemblies in Public Environments, is an EU Future and Emerging Technologies project of the Disappearing Computer initiative, concerned with designing and developing novel technology to enhance interpersonal interaction in public locales: exploratoria, galleries, and museums, for example. This paper outlines a use of hybrid reality technology to enhance users' social experience and learning about antique artefacts and their related history. We describe early SHAPE technical work where we explore whether there are benefits: educational and social, to visitors of extending virtual archaeology or augmented reality archaeology into the public setting of the museum.