Augmented reality brings Revolutionary War to life at Army Museum

From the wildly popular traveling Van Gogh exhibit to the immersive “King Tut” experience that trades artifacts for hauntingly lit and realistic tableaux, museums everywhere are departing from conventional curated collections to find new ways to engage visitors. At the National Museum of the United States Army at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, staff hope a new augmented-reality exhibit featuring some 20 scenes from the Revolutionary War will create that fresh engagement while also building interest in the rare pieces of war history housed elsewhere in the building.

“American Revolution: The Augmented Exhibition,” which opens Saturday at the museum, uses the camera scanning feature of a museum-provided tablet to bring dramatically backlit displays to life. Scenes like the site of the Boston Massacre and Washington’s famous Delaware River crossing are mixed with video game-style period characters and allow visitors to pan the screen for 360-degree navigation of the space.

Selecting hot spots on the screen will bring you to the center of a crowd listening to a preacher fomenting revolution or transport you to Thomas Jefferson’s talking head, animated through generative AI.

Those seeking a “gamified” experience can select a treasure hunt activity through the various scenes, while those less keen on the immersive elements can take their tablets over to a comfortable corner in the exhibit space and manually swipe through all the scenes at their own pace, said Susan Smullen, a public affairs officer for the museum.

A particularly interesting feature for the larger interactive scenes lets viewers scroll forward in time to the same location in the present day.

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Source: Military Times
Website: www.militarytimes.com