Augmenting reality in museums with interactive virtual models

Two projects at the University of Oxford extend beyond screen-based interactivity to create physically interactive models of museum objects on smartphones utilising Bluetooth, image recognition and sensors. The Pocket Curator app gives visitors to the Museum of the History of Science the opportunity to recreate a 19th century demonstration of wireless technology in the gallery and to find their latitude with a virtual sextant. The re-sOUnd app transforms phones into historic musical instruments: moving your arm in a bowing motion plays an Amati Violin and blowing into the phone while tilting it up and down sounds a trumpet used by Oliver Cromwell's trumpeter. This paper describes the apps, discusses challenges discovered in testing them with museum visitors, and reports findings from user interviews.