List of AR apps in Museums:

• ArtLens 2.0 - Cleveland Museum of Art
• Layar - Blanton Museum of Art
• Skin and Bones - Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History
• Smartify - Metropolitan museum of Art
• Aurasma App

PDF Augmenting Reality in Museums with Interactive Virtual Models PDF

1: TANGO: In Hall of the Universe (HoU) Visitors viewed a virtual Orion constellation on a Tango handheld device, which they could move forward and backwards, to see the constellation’s shape/line change. Tango is like an iPad with one key difference: it knows where it sits in the space around it. This means, for AR, you can place augmentations in space and then use your Tango to walk around or (in the case of stars) amongst them.

2. HOLOLENS: Visitors now viewed a virtual Orion constellation (as well as three smaller constellations) through a Hololens device. (Hololens is an augmented reality headset that enables the wearer to see, and navigate, computer generated images or landscapes.) Walking back and forth, and around, visitors viewed the constellations as existing in a 3D space, with a backdrop of real stars.

3. ESCAPE THE PLANET: Over a four day design sprint, co-developed withMuseum youth[BJ2] learners, we created a prototype of an escape room with an astro-theme: Escape the Planet. (Escape rooms are physical adventure games that require players to solve a series of puzzles.) One of the puzzles required a group of players to use a UV flashlight to find clues in posters that identified one particular constellation. A different player, wearing the Hololens loaded with a new version of the AR Constellation experience, had to look at the name of the closest star to Earth within that constellation (also known as its catalog number) so another player could record those digits and use them to open a padlocked case.

https://www.aam-us.org/2018/06/12/iris-part-one-designing-coding-a-museum-ai/

IRIS+ is a new experience integrated into the main exhibition of the Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. When the museum opened in 2015, its original digital assistant, IRIS, was already a core part of the experience.

https://mashable.com/2018/04/21/museum-companion-apps.amp

“For me, someone looking at their phone screens to get the information vs. the label, there isn’t a huge amount of difference,” Tallon said. “For me, the greatest challenge is actually the more global societal challenge which we currently face: that people’s attention is being dramatically reduced by these technologies. How we use phones is dramatically changing how our brains work. And that’s where I see the impact of these technologies, on people’s ability to stand in front of an artwork and spend more time with it.”

-Loic Tallon, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

For all types of museums that are thinking about using AR apps in their gallery spaces, the following should be taken into consideration:

• Museum’s ability: A museum should first consider their financial situation when deciding whether to develop their own AR app or use an existing one. A museum should also consider if the app requires free WiFi access throughout the exhibition space.

• Museum visitors’ needs: The museum should collect information of visitor behaviors and visitor preferences to pre-examine the most effective way to implement AR technology.

• Special requirements for the exhibition: A museum should consider the necessity of using an AR app for its permanent collections or a temporary exhibition. Artwork that requires curatorial and interpretive information, other than the text panels and labels, might be best to feature in an AR app. Museums that have already embarked on using AR apps in gallery spaces should consider the following:

• An effective evaluation process: A museum should collect data and feedback for their AR app use, and adjust or update various components accordingly. The feedback from visitors can also indicate areas for improvement.

• Create awareness among patrons: A museum should establish and maintain an effective operation and communication system that supports AR app use. In addition, promotion of the AR app both inside and outside the museum is important to attract new app users.

Effective use of AR apps in gallery spaces can help museums achieve various goals and drive institutional changes. AR apps are not just tools for informational and engagement – they are also educational platforms that encourage observations, spark conversation and ignite imaginations. Besides adding additional interpretation for museum collections, AR apps may also bring surprising value to museums’ educational programming. Finally, they may even add value to children’s museums and encourage kinesthetic learning.