Augmented Reality in Heritage Apps:Current Trends in Europe

Although augmented reality (AR) has come to play an increasingly important role in a wide range of areas, its use remains rather limited in the realm of heritage education. This paper sets out to analyze which heritage-related apps can be found in Europe that partly or wholly use AR as a tool to help users learn about different types of heritage. Our study only identified a limited number of such apps and we used this sample both to paint a portrait of the current state of the question and also to highlight certain observable trends. The results showed that most such apps used AR to reconstruct spaces and buildings, and to a lesser extent, objects. Many of these apps used an academic mode of communication to provide a temporal perspective of monumental and (mainly) historical heritage. The paper also outlines future lines of research dedicated to finding more apps that could be used to increase the current sample size. This would allow for a more comprehensive assessment of such apps from an educational point of view. Several case studies are proffered in order to highlight the keys to successful use of AR in heritage apps.