Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage 38 (2025) e00450 Available online 9 August 2025 2212-0548/© 2025 Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies. Augmented reality application for the preservation of cultural heritage: The case of the Ottoman galley from the Suleiman I period Evren Sertalp a , Mehmet Sait Sütcü b,* a Hacettepe University, Turkey b Mu˘gla Sıtkı Koçman University, Turkey A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Augmented reality Cultural heritage Hayreddin Barbarossa Ottoman galley 3D modelling ABSTRACT Technological developments have led each discipline to produce new terms and techniques, providing different opportunities. Alongside virtual reality, hologram technology, and mixed reality, “augmented reality” has become a method frequently encountered in everyday life and an effective technological tool that can be applied to various fields. This technology combines the physical environment with the multiple media created on a computer. Consisting of 3D images, videos, and animations and offering audio narration, augmented reality has increased its importance in transmitting cultural heritage to future generations. The artefacts can be re-examined with augmented reality technology, and the necessary information can be obtained verbally and in writing. This study aims to create an augmented reality application to display an Ottoman galley whose physical remains have not survived to this day. This study uses the marker-based method for application to work on different mobile devices. This study has the importance of being the first study to create and display a 3D model of this galley. It also shows that the augmented reality application can make artefacts more perceptible and exciting and offers a new and technological alternative for displaying such artefacts. 1. Introduction Creating visual elements and converting them into applications has created many scientific, cultural, and intellectual opportunities. Thanks to the fast processors of computer systems, high-performance graphics cards, and open-source 3D design programs, it has brought many new ideas into action. Recent developments in hardware and software for mobile information/data processing have paved the way for using a variety of concepts and technologies, which are created by computers and used on mobile devices, by actualising a new kind of mobile augmented reality system and application (Papagiannakis et al., 2008). Augmented reality, as one of these concepts, allows us to examine various visual elements created on a computer in 3D. Augmented reality is the real-time, direct, or indirect transfer of computer-generated audio, video, graphics, or GPS information to the physical world (Azuma, 1997; Zhou et al., 2008). According to Furth’s definition, augmented reality refers to applications that combine real-time, direct, or indirect information generated in computer systems with the physical environment (Furth, 2011). Augmented reality is used in the military, new media, mixed realities, art, education, advertising, and many others. Although its history dates back even further, a digital library application called ARToolKit was developed by Japanese engi- neer Hirokazu Kato in 1990 (Kato and Billinghurst, 1999). This open-source library application is still being used and developed with computer software support and is helping new platforms to emerge. On the internet, many applications enable augmented reality applications and libraries for end-users, such as Vuforia, Wikitude, ARKit, ARCore, Maxst, Kudan, DeepAR, and Github/ARToolKit. Moreover, there are many add-ons for 3 d modelling programs, such as Blender 3D, Unity and, Unreal Engine. These tools enable the augmented reality more user-friendly and highly interactive which leads to wide use of augmented reality applications. Regarding augmented reality, Azuma mentions three-dimensional concepts that can combine reality and vir- tuality and can also be interacted with in real-time (Azuma, 1997; Tunçer, 2017). These concepts reveal that augmented reality is a tech- nology that allows changes to be made to it and is suitable for editing. Augmented reality technology has also been used in cultural heritage preservation studies (Kalay et al., 2007). For example, the Temple of Hera in Olympia, Greece, was animated using augmented reality tech- nology as part of the “ARCHEOGUIDE Project” (Stricker et al., 2001). At the Allard Pierson Museum of Antiquities, it is possible to learn various information on the artefacts through an augmented reality application * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: esertalp@hacettepe.edu.tr (E. Sertalp), mehmetsutcu@mu.edu.tr (M.S. Sütcü). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/daach https://doi.org/10.1016/j.daach.2025.e00450 Received 26 December 2023; Received in revised form 16 May 2025; Accepted 27 July 2025