There is significant scope to improve access to museums collections, with almost half of the UK population not visiting a museum in 2012-2013. Augmented Reality provides new opportunities to create access to and deeper engagement with collections. The museums sector has been exploring its potential to some degree, but survey data suggests many more will do so in the next few years.
To date, AR and mobile applications developed by the sector such as the
Let's Explore and Museum of London Streetview apps - have been limited in scope. Academic Research projects in this area have not often been taken beyond initial user engagement studies and released publicly.
AR sits in a distinct part of the virtuality continuum, which ranges from the completely real to the completely virtual. When deciding to deploy AR, there are a number of factors to consider right at the outset, including whether it will be available on a mobile device or wearable tech (eg headset), whether it is sensor or vision based and how the data will be stored and accessed.
This project took place between April 2013 and May 2014. It involved the creation of an Android mobile application which enables users to view 2D images from the Peter Scott Gallery as though exhibited in a physical space, accessed from any locaton with internet connectivity.
The research question was concerned with whether mobile augmented reality (MAR) could increase meaningful engagement with museums and art gallery collections.
The project team adopted a methodology closely aligned with Research Through Design. They produced 5 digital versions of the prop type and
these were developed with iterative participatory design.
More than 80 users participated including gallery volunteers and staff, children from local schools and young people from local colleges.

The project team had to respond to several changes in personnel and technical challenges. This resulted in reallocated roles, increased development time, reduced content and reduced promotional activity.
The budget was £96,840 but this did not include significant additional unbilled time given by the project team.
As a result of the project, a free app was launched in the UK in May 2014 and in the USA in July 2014. It has been downloaded to date 45 times and remains accessible to the public. The software used is open source.
A key goal for the arts partner going forward is to find resource to extend the content available. The content management system which is fully functional has been designed to enable this to happen in house.
The project has generated insights concerning ethical use of data, backwards compatibility of devices, publication and copyright issues and the quality of digitised collection images.
