Title: Augmented Reality applied to Museum Gallery Maps
Description: Augmented reality (AR) has the potential to play a major role in improving both the experience of museum visitors and the education they receive. Through its capacity for virtual engagement, augmented reality enables a robust application of active learning as opposed to the more conventional form of passive learning (Challenor and Mia 2019). Augmented reality (AR) is one method by which museums can reach out to the technology field to provide more memorable experiences for visitors. Augmented reality (AR) is superimposing digital images, sound, or other sensory data onto a live, physical environment, most frequently using a smartphone. I study the use of augmented reality (AR) to boost visitor interaction with museum gallery maps in this piece for my book.

<img src="https://arplanet.com.sg/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/11-2.png">


Gallery maps in museums often display an arrangement of the museum's floor space and serve as a navigational aid for visitors. Maps are typically made to be easy to use and can include information about ongoing exhibitions and amenities within the institution. The majority of the time, a map is an actual piece of paper. The mobile applications of many museums include map functionality. Examples of such establishments include the Louvre, the British Museum, and the Panhandle Plains Museum (Hanussek 2020). The usage of virtual maps within applications can make it possible for augmented reality features to be integrated into the app's software while also enabling the ongoing use of physical versions of maps.

An existing printed-out gallery and museum amenities map may be found at the front entrance kiosk of the Texas Tech University Museum. This map is available for guests to take with them and use to aid in their navigation across the museum's various exhibition spaces. The Museum of Texas Tech University houses a wide variety of exhibits and collections, some of which include paleontology, art, clothing and textiles, native American pottery, and many more. The museum is located on the campus of Texas Tech University. The existing map provides a straightforward blueprint-style plan of the museum structure, complete with textual annotations and color labeling. The names of the galleries are included in the text on the map; nevertheless, some of the titles, such as "changing globe" and "Diamond M gallery," are somewhat unclear and should better convey the contents of the gallery. The current map features color coding that indicates which galleries are long-term or permanent, which host rotating exhibitions, and the locations of certain amenities like the auditorium and offices. Although a map is a helpful tool for guests, I wanted to augment it with an augmented reality (AR) experience so that it would be more entertaining to show off what was in each exhibit.


**Creating an Augmented Reality Museum Visitor Map**


Reality Composer is an Apple AR design app that can be downloaded free on iOS or macOS through Xcode. This app was used to generate the augmented reality map of the  <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/">Museum Gallery</a>. Users begin their work in Reality Composer by constructing an anchor for their project, which can be horizontal, vertical, a picture, or an object. This anchor is used to attach their augmented reality scene. Because I will be adding AR elements to the museum gallery map, which is an image anchor, I decided to go with that option. After deciding what augmented reality experience I wanted to develop, I looked for items I could animate.

I started out by exploring all of the galleries in the museum to get a better idea of what kinds of things may be used to symbolize the many topics covered in the exhibits. The items I used for my project were a combination of those that were premade in Reality Composer, those that were downloaded from SketchFab, and those made in Photocatch. The Reality Composer app is pre-loaded with augmented reality (AR) objects from various categories. 

The categories encompass fundamental forms, pursuits, creative endeavors, intellectual pursuits, cuisine, the natural world, and furniture, amongst many others. For the purpose of developing augmented reality experiences, Sketchfab and other online resource websites offer already-developed, downloadable 3D models. You can download a three-dimensional augmented reality model of a T-Rex, a mammoth, a sarcophagus, a blue whale, or anything else you believe best reflects the contents of your museum collection. Creating <a href="https://it-s.com/our-services/2d-3d-modeling/3d-product-models/">3D Modeling</a> representations of the objects in your collection would be yet another choice for you to make in order to incorporate them into your augmented reality experience. To develop objects from one's collection, all that is required is to take a few photographs of the object from various angles and input the data into an application such as Photocatch. This will result in the creation of quick and easy models of a high quality that can be used in augmented reality projects. Using Photocatch, I added augmented reality components to several works of art and signs located throughout the museum.

After collecting all of the 3D AR artefacts, I then positioned them on the map within the galleries that were most appropriate for each individual object. A T-Rex can be found in the Paleontology gallery, an art piece from the permanent collection can be found in one of the Art galleries, and a Coyote can be found in the Natural Life Science gallery. These are just a few examples of gallery objects that can be found in their respective galleries. After I had matched each gallery to an object that could be animated via augmented reality, I then animated the individual objects.


**Conclusion**

Augmented reality (AR) can increase visitor engagement in museums by providing a visual learning experience that can be accessed by anybody with a smart device. QR codes can provide links to augmented reality experiences, which can then be displayed in various locations across the museum or made into a map. Traditional museum education methods, such as literature and physical items, can be supplemented by augmented reality (AR), offering visitors with an additional learning style to try out. The realism of augmented reality (AR) experiences at a museum is attainable and useful to the experience of the visitor because the process of developing AR experiences is straightforward to create and is relatively accessible.
Subjects: 3D Studio, Augmented reality, Museums
Places: British Museum