SensiMARTesting SensiMAR in Conimbriga
SensiMAR was out for user tests. In a total of 8 days, Conimbriga’s visitors were able to see more, to hear more, and to smell more. The house of Cantaber was augmented with a virtual reconstruction, a soundscape, and a smell of garum.
SensiMAR, the Multisensory Application
To deliver more intense and enhanced experiences, multisensory applications have the goal to stimulate all our senses. According to the recent literature available, multisensory has become an appealing solution for museums, archaeological sites, tourism spaces, and other CH places.
Given the small amount of studies related to multisensory experiences associated with AR technology, a hypothesis which states that several stimuli in AR applications can be explored to enhance experiences in cultural heritage, is raised. Intending to break down this premise, we need a better understanding of how people feel about using the technology in-situ.
Thus, I went to Conimbriga, an archaeological site with Roman Ruins, carrying the necessary equipment, and tested SensiMAR prototype with Conimbriga’s visitors. Figure 1 shows where the experience took place.
Figure 1 - SensiMAR setup in the House of Cantaber, Conimbriga Ruins. The user is highlighted with an ellipse.
SensiMAR prototype uses a smartphone to see the virtual reconstitution, speakers to listen to sounds, and a smell dispenser to smell the garum, a fish sauce that romans used to eat a lot.
The Experience
When invited to participate in the experience, users were invited to hear an introductory information related to Romans habits and the House of Cantaber. The purpose of this text is to provide information that will allow users to better understand what they see, what they hear, and what they smell.
What did visitors see?
When standing at the vestibule of the house of Cantaber, using the smartphone, users could see a virtual reconstitution of the house, such as the peristyle (the interior garden), with its correspondent fountains and the Ionic columns. The virtual reconstruction also includes some rooms near the user.
SensiMAR is supposed to be a 360-degree experience. Starting at a frontal position to the garden, when the user reaches the entrance of the house (in a 180 degree from start), an animation takes place. Two Romans will appear, talk and walk from one room to another. In their half-way, a wagon passes outside, on the main street carrying goods.
Figure 1 - Two people are being notified about how to test the SensiMAR app.
The experience could be performed alone or in pairs. More than two people is also possible but, due to the size of the screen, that was not recommended.
What did visitors hear?
A soundscape was playing in loop during the entire experience. Sounds of wagons at distance were perceptible, a blacksmith working and well as the sound of the water flowing was perfectly noticeable. Other sounds such as people talking at distance and birds enriched this soundscape. When the animation starts, the two romans talking in Latin is the more obvious sound added to the existent soundscape. Withal, the user will listen the steps of the romans and several wagons riding having one getting closer and passing outside.
Figure 2 - SensiMAR setup in the House of Cantaber, Conimbriga Ruins.
The four speakers were installed in place in order to create a sphere of sounds simulating a better 3D scene of sounds, taking into consideration the distance and orientation towards the user’s position.
What did visitors smell?
During the introductory explanation about the Romans, participants are noticed that garum, a fish sauce that roman used to eat a lot, was very common. At this moment, they are invited to smell it, and they are presented with a smell of “fish market” that should be very similar to the smell of garum.
When exploring the augmented experience with SensiMAR app, during the animation, the same smell is released when the wagon passes with the goods, to recall the transport of garum, as said during the introductory text.
SensiMAR: a Video of the Experience
Despite the fact of not having nice quality of image neither of sound, a video was captured during the SensiMAR experience to impart an idea of the experience in situ (YouTube link here).
Aiming to succeed when exploring the space with SensiMAR, participants were advised to explore not very fast, in order to avoid the tracking lost, and not to cover the camera with their hands.
Preliminary Conclusions
A total of 70 visitors with ages from 16 to 86 participated in this study. The results are being under analysis at the moment, wherefore no results are yet presented.
However, several participants were invited to share their feedback about the overall experience through an informal talk. All of them affirmed to feel comfortable when using the technology, understanding the way that they should interact with it in order to succeed exploring the virtual surroundings.
In some experiences, the sun hampered the perception of the visual information (the virtual reconstitution) when looking at the garden because users were in front of the sun. It was possible to see the virtual garden, but with some difficulties, specially at the end of the afternoons (because of the sun’s position).
In the overall, participants clearly expressed their will to find this type of solutions in archaeological sites. During our talks, the ease of use, the amount of information that they perceived provided with the SensiMAR prototype, and the fun of seeing virtual Romans in place, were the features more frequently highlighted by users to demonstrate their satisfaction with the multisensory AR experience.
«Please, keep working on this, we want to find this more often! It’s amazing!», they said.
_ Yes, I will keep the hard work :)
