Avebury Portal – A Location-Based Augmented Reality Treasure Hunt for Archaeological Sites

Many archaeological sites are less popular by visits amongst the younger group and overall less popular than majority of other heritage sites. They are often not enhanced by supporting medium like in museums or historic buildings. Many augmented reality (AR) systems have been developed for archaeological sites and proved to benefit user engagement. However, most result in the superimposition of virtual reconstructions of the site and very little interaction. In this paper, we demonstrate the development of a location-based treasure hunt AR app, Avebury Portal, for the heritage site; Avebury in England. Avebury Portal uses puzzles with the environment to give clues, and a narrative that responds to the user’s location. We developed Avebury Portal with Unity Engine and Vuforia to demonstrate the effectiveness of using AR to enhance visitors’ experiences on learning.

Duke Scholars

Author Feng Tian DKU Faculty