Developing and Testing the The Historiscope: An Augmented Reality Viewing Scope
This is the 3rd Blog in our Historiscope series - leading on from our user experience and narrative overview found here;
Blog 1 https://www.sensecity.co/blog/2022/4/25/designing-an-augmented-reality-experience-for-urquhart-castle
Blog 2
https://www.sensecity.co/blog/an-ar-enabled-viewing-scope-located-at-historic-environment-scotlands-urquhart-castle
Recap
As our Archaeologist, Heritage Scientist, Project Manager and all-around good guy Tiomóid Foley so eloquently summed up in the last episode of the ongoing Historiscope blog-posting series, we are currently in the midst of one of the most exciting stages of the project. Historiscope is developed as a Creative Informatics Challenge project in collaboration with Historic Environment Scotland.
For those who are just joining us at the current stage of the project, a quick recap. What is the Historiscope? Historiscope is an augmented reality viewing scope that provides a user with a snapshot of history from a prominent historical location. It evolves from the idea of the existing tourist telescope (or tower viewer), but instead of providing a closer view of what's already in front of the viewers’ eyes, it allows a user to see a specific moment from history relevant to the specific destination.
Where more fitting, then, to first test this brand new experience than Urquhart castle, one of Scotland’s most prominent historic locations, situated on the banks of Loch Ness.
Design Journey
So, we knew what the Historiscope needed to do but the challenging question was how should it do it? And equally importantly, how should it look? That brings us onto sharing our thoughts on Historiscope’s design journey.
The aim was to design something inviting yet appropriate for an experience focused on evoking heritage. We explored multiple iterations for the hardware which would act as the housing unit for our device to display the Augmented Reality Experience.
Evolution of the ‘pawn’ inspired figure for the Historiscope Hardware Design
The ideas evolved around having a headset mounted over a body that would eventually be able to rotate and cater to revealing content. The viewer needed to be standalone, easy to maintain and easy to transport.
Our final design complements the broader Historical landscape and its environs with anthropomorphic design. The chosen route was an ancient monolithic type design with a futuristic headset that invites users into the past.
Designing a Frictionless Journey
We worked around 4 design principles to create a frictionless journey for the visitors.
Immediate so the experience would not require any downtime to wait in line, gear up, or download an app.
Inclusive so the experience can be both comprehensive and inviting. We designed a self-contained experience so that the visitor does not require to bring along their own external devices or software.
Immersive so the experience creates an engaging and immersive experience giving them a snapshot of history.
Intuitive so the experience doesn’t require the user to read complicated instructions or learn complex new interfaces. We believe that Intuitive, naturalistic behaviour should be all that is required to interact with the augmented world.
What Will the Users Experience?
From the prototype historiscope, users will view a 60-second glimpse of a 15th-century Castleton on the grounds in front of Urquhart castle, complete with a timber hall, housing and men, women and children in the correct period attire, undertaking their daily tasks and activities.
Reconstructing Castleton from archaeological grey literature was’’t without its challenges as a standalone visual image did not seem complete without audio aspects to assist the user in imagining what daily life was like in front of the castle. This led us to write a script of what an audio experience would sound like. And thanks to a collaborative effort with the interpretation team at HES we were able with the assistance of Gavin Glencorse and Steve Farrar was able to track down some native Gaelic speakers on Skye amongst other sounds and integrate those with our 3D visual experiences. This assisted us in giving our viewers the best and most authentic indigenous and historic feel to the landscape around Urquhart.
Digital Reconstruction of the Castletoun
The audio experiences like our 3D content were designed to complement the broader historic landscape of Urquhart. This meant that it also needed to complement the design aesthetics of the Historiscope with the help of our multidisciplinary team. “The Pawn” aka MK1 prototype of the Historiscope was an overall complementary experience as the viewer would walk up peek through an overall very Human experience.
Our team and users at Urquhart Castle getting a glimpse of the AR content through the Historiscope
The Demo Day Experience
We installed the Historiscope on the 13th of September 2021 and saw our ideas come to flesh! After about 48 hours of calibration and internal testing, we were ready for users to come and test it and share their feedback. It was spectacular to see visitors queue up to have a glimpse of the Historiscope Experience and here is what some of them have to say about it!
“I think that's the way history should be displayed!”
“It’s what we need at these places!”
“It’s the difference between reading the book and seeing the film!”
There is nothing more fulfilling than having users enjoy what has been designed and developed primarily for them! Our journey continues from here as we continue to further develop the Historiscope for
You are invited!
If you would like to experience the Historiscope, it will be running on-site for a few more weeks before we stop the user testing phase! It is currency located at Urquhart Castle near Inverness.
Concluding Remarks
Authors
Pooja Katara: Founder and Director of SENSEcity
Daniel Blake: Product Designer at SENSEcity
Tiomóid Foley: Project Manager and Heritage Advisor for the Historiscope Project
With Special Thanks to
Steve Farrar- Interpretation Manager at Urquhart Castle, HES
Gavin Glencorse- Interpretation office, HES
Ashutosh Soni- 3D Content Animator and Developer
Jaydeep Bais- Software Developer
About Creative Informatics Challenge Projects
SENSEcity won the 2nd Round of the Creative Informatics Challenge Project where five organizations were selected to progress for funding for 5 separate Challenge Projects. You can find out more about Creative Informatics here.
Contact Details
For any enquiry related to the Historiscope Project; or if you would be interested in developing a product for your own site, please contact: pooja@sensecity.co