C. Stephanidis (Ed.): Posters, Part II, HCII 2013, CCIS 374, pp. 282–286, 2013.
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
An Augmented Tourist Guide of a World Heritage City
Eulalia Rodríguez Fino
1
, Jorge Martín-Gutiérrez
1
, David C. Pérez López
4
, M. Dolores
Meneses Fernández
2
, Vicente M. Zapata Hernández
3
, and Felipe Monzón Penate
1
1
Dept. Expresión Gráfica en Arquitectura e Ingeniería,
2
Dept. Ciencias de la Información,
3
Dept. de Geografía
Universidad de La Laguna, Avda. Angel Guimerá Jorge s/n, 38202 La Laguna, Spain
4
Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain
{erfino,vzpata,fmonzon}@ull.es,
{jmargu,dmeneses}@ull.edu.es, dapelo@i3bh.es
Abstract. In this paper, we introduce the design and implementation of a tourist
guide, using augmented reality technology, for visiting two of the most important
routes in a World Heritage city. To produce this application, we used the
augmented reality library, HumanAR, developed by our research group and
created with the aim of integrating the applications we have developed. The
application guides the user on a route across the town with a video of 3D anima-
tions of historic buildings along the way. The most symbolic buildings of the city
are pictured and modelled on a walking tour across the historic site, designed
to develop an interest in cultural tourism, keeping in mind the impact that this
tourism may have on World Heritage cities.
Keywords: Augmented reality, world heritage, tourist guide.
1 Introduction
Augmented reality applications allow the introduction of additional information to our
real view of the world, making it possible to superimpose virtual objects over real
images captured by a camera. It’s a technology that improves the experience of
communication as well as that of human computer interaction. The AR environments
have the following characteristics: they combine real and virtual environments; they
are interactive in real-time; they are registered in four dimensions (three dimensional
space and time), where virtual objects can be stationary or animated; there is
interactivity between the object and the real world and abstract concepts can be made
visible, in order to enhance the user’s understanding.
These characteristics seem appropriate for producing a tourist route guide of
the historic town of San Cristobal de La Laguna. In this paper, we justify the need for
using such technological actions in the culture and tourism field and describe the
completed application.