An Ontology-based Augmented Reality Application Exploring Contextual Data of Cultural Heritage Sites

In this study, we present a novel Augmented Reality (AR) application for providing contextual information of cultural heritage sites. Whereas most location based AR systems are designed to show simple information on a Point of Interest (POI) in the real world, the suggested application offers information related to various cultural heritages including tangible and intangible heritages linked to the POI. This is accomplished by a cultural heritage ontology that aggregates heterogeneous data and reorganizes information in themes and relationships. The users can browse information such as the person who created the POI and events that took place at the location as separate entities. We implemented the application for Injeongjeon and the vicinity of Changdeokgung palace and conducted user studies to determine how people explore and consume contextual information at the heritage site. We provide directions that will be useful for designing information to support heritage site visiting, and discuss how the AR technology could improve the application.