The Photo Positioning Puzzle : Creating Engaging Applications for Historical Photographs by Combining Mobile Augmented Reality and Gamification

摘要

How may we find new and engaging solutions for access to, and the application of, digital photo archivesƒ Digitized collections continue to be relatively unused and unexploited, despite formidable investments over several decades. Innovation in design and implementation could open the way to a plethora of new techniques for the display and dissemination of digitized resources. In this paper, we explore some new and potentially valuable techniques to enhance use of digitized historical photographs by combining (mobile) Augmented Reality (AR) with elements of gameplay (gamification). To make the design practical, we drew from features found in common 'analogue' games such as the jigsaw puzzle and the 'Hot & Cold' game. In addition to this experimental design for a ‘Photo Positioning Puzzle’, the application includes a dynamic 3D–reconstruction of an historic city square (Raekoja Plats in Old Narva, Estonia), as well as an information layer for access to background information, including additional historical photos and online resources. The system has been tested and assessed by users on location. Our conclusion is that the presented ‘Photo Positioning Puzzle’ and its integration with other forms of mobile AR functionality was successful, and should have general value and suitability for additional historical places with corresponding photo collections and archived documentation.