Mergin’ Mode: Mixed Reality and Geoinformatics for Monument Demonstration

Abstract

Since smart devices are becoming the primary technological means for daily human activities related to user-location, location-based services constitute a crucial component of the related smart applications. Meanwhile, traditional geospatial tools such as geographic information systems (GIS) in conjunction with photogrammetric techniques and 3D visualization frameworks can achieve immersive virtual reality over custom virtual geospatial worlds. In such environments, 3D scenes with virtual beings and monuments with the assistance of storytelling techniques may reconstruct historical sites and “revive” historical events. Boosting of Internet and wireless network speeds and mixed reality (MR) capabilities generate great opportunities for the development of location-based smart applications with cultural heritage content. This paper presents the MR authoring tool of “Mergin’ Mode” project, aimed at monument demonstration through the merging of the real with the virtual, assisted by geoinformatics technologies. The project does not aim at simply producing an MR solution, but more importantly, an open source platform that relies on location-based data and services, exploiting geospatial functionalities. In the long term, it aspires to contribute to the development of open cultural data repositories and the incorporation of cultural data in location-based services and smart guides, to enable the web of open cultural data, thereby adding extra value to the existing cultural-tourism ecosystem.