Choosing AR or VR

Why choose AR over VR editors/game engines for cultural heritage/GLAM

Real-world GLAM institutes and collections often provide a textual, visual, non-visual and non-textual experience. Museum studies also provide evidence that visitors want physical experiences, and to sense that other people are there as well (Hadley, 2017; Somers, 2018). Curators and interpretation specialists may be interested in VR and AR to engage younger users, as alternatives to text (Lynch, 2020), and to better disseminate significant elements of their collection.

Figure 1: Virtual Museum Template.

Yet library staff may not have the time, resources or the technical skills to develop interactive VR (Clark and Clischer-Katz, 2020). For example, in 2020, to help resolve these issues, my colleagues and I created a virtual museum environment using Unity (Champion, Kerr, Rahaman, & McMeekin, 2021): we hoped to show the GLAM sector and humanities scholars they could display maps, photos, videos and 3D models in a virtual museum setting, without complex programming (Figure 1). However, 3D game environments and full virtual reality headsets can be used by librarians and visitors but they are expensive, hard to maintain and generally single-person experiences (displaying VR content on an external monitor does not suffice).

Game engines and virtual reality tools may prove too complicated, unreliable, or expensive, plus there are related health risks in sharing headsets. They have one advantage over AR/XR frameworks, it is far easier to prototype and develop full games in them. However, for our library workshop setting, this is not essential.

Consumer VR headsets are priced, at the moment, over $400 AUD (Moore-Colyer, 2021) and require powerful computers (generally, Windows). Gaming consoles are as expensive, and to say buy a PlayStation VR Starter Park with headset, requires a monitor to share displayed content, and is already superseded (and not easy for beginners to develop for). More powerful VR equipment such as the HTC Vive headset is currently 1900 AUD and requires space and powerful PCs (Moore-Colyer, 2021).

AR tools can be downloaded and used on personal mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) and can export to mixed reality and virtual reality devices, so they are more suitable for a workshop setting. A-Frame seems to be the most open and accessible for a range of devices and learners, plus it can help learners master JavaScript and understand more about webpage construction.

References

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AUSTRALIAN LIBRARY AND INFORMATION ASSOCIATION. 2020. GLAM peak bodies [Online]. ALIA. Available: https://www.alia.org.au/which-sector-are-you-interested/glam-peak-bodies [Accessed 2 April 2021].

BECKER, B. W. 2018. Information literacy in the digital age: Myths and principles of digital literacy. School of Information Student Research Journal, 7, 2.

CAUL. 2015. Digital Dexterity Community of Practice [Online]. Available: https://www.caul.edu.au/about-caul/communities-practice/digital-dexterity-community-practice. [Accessed 2 April 2021].

Champion, E., Kerr, R., Rahaman, H., & McMeekin, D. 202). Time-Layered Gamic Interaction with a Virtual Museum Template. Paper presented at the EuroMed 2020 Digital Heritage Conference, Online. [Accessed 2 April 2021].

CLARK, J. & LISCHER-KATZ, Z. 2020. Barriers to supporting accessible VR in Academic Libraries. The Journal of Interactive Technology & Pedagogy [Online]. Available: https://jitp.commons.gc.cuny.edu/barriers-to-supporting-accessible-vr-in-academic-libraries/ [Accessed 28 May 2021].

GLAM PEAK AND ALIA. 2020. GLAM Peak and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. Online: Analysis and Policy Observatory. [Accessed 2 April 2021].

HADLEY, P. 2 August 2017. What do the best museum websites all do? Cogapp [Online]. Available: https://blog.cogapp.com/what-do-the-best-museum-websites-all-do-8d6727504605 [Accessed 2 June 2017].

LYNCH, M. 16 September 2020 2020. 10 Awesome AR Apps for the Classroom. The Tech Advocate [Online]. Available: https://www.thetechedvocate.org/10-awesome-ar-apps-for-the-classroom/ [Accessed 1 April 2021].

MACARTHUR FOUNDATION. 2010. Rethinking Learning: The 21st Century Learner | MacArthur Foundation [Online]. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0xa98cy-Rw [Accessed 30 March 2021].

MOORE-COLYER, R. March 2021 2021. The best VR headset in 2021. tom’s guide [Online]. Available: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-vr-headsets,review-3550.html [Accessed 1 April 2021].

SOMERS, A. C. 2018. Top museum directors on the challenges of climate change and mass tourism [Online]. Available: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/fixes-for-flood-quake-and-sheer-popularity [Accessed 30 January 2020].