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A Survey of Augmented, Virtual, and Mixed Reality for Cultural Heritage
Abstract
A multimedia approach to the diffusion, communication, and exploitation of Cultural Heritage (CH) is a well-established trend worldwide. Several studies demonstrate that the use of new and combined media enhances how culture is experienced. The benefit is in terms of both number of people who can have access to knowledge and the quality of the diffusion of the knowledge itself. In this regard, CH uses augmented-, virtual-, and mixed-reality technologies for different purposes, including education, exhibition enhancement, exploration, reconstruction, and virtual museums. These technologies enable user-centred presentation and make cultural heritage digitally accessible, especially when physical access is constrained. A number of surveys of these emerging technologies have been conducted; however, they are either not domain specific or lack a holistic perspective in that they do not cover all the aspects of the technology. A review of these technologies from a cultural heritage perspective is therefore warranted. Accordingly, our article surveys the state-of-the-art in augmented-, virtual-, and mixed-reality systems as a whole and from a cultural heritage perspective. In addition, we identify specific application areas in digital cultural heritage and make suggestions as to which technology is most appropriate in each case. Finally, the article predicts future research directions for augmented and virtual reality, with a particular focus on interaction interfaces and explores the implications for the cultural heritage domain.
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“Some cutting-edge virtual museums are indeed doing this by including meta-commentary on their own reconstruction process (e.g., showing what data is missing, or showing alternate reconstructions) [10,36,38,49].”
From Virtual Museums as Meaning-Modeling Systems in Digital Heritage (2025) · cites this paper as [36]
In the citing paper
“The use of extended reality technologies, such as AR, enhances the user experience and interaction with the exhibits [21,22].”
From Motiv-ARCHE: co-creation of augmented reality educational content to motivate cultural and natural heritage learning (2025) · cites this paper as [22]
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Augmented Reality in Cultural Heritage: An Overview of the Last Decade of Applications
Boboc, R. G., Băutu, E., Gîrbacia, F., Popovici, N., & Popovici, D.-M. (2022) · Applied Sciences · doi:10.3390/app12199859 · Cited by 387
Trunfio, M., Lucia, M. D., Campana, S., & Magnelli, A. (2022) · Journal of Heritage Tourism · doi:10.1080/1743873x.2020.1850742 · Cited by 321
“…Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR) – is the innovation impacting the most on cultural heritage and museums (Bec et al., 2019; Bekele et al., 2018; Buhalis et al., 2019; Han et al., 2018; Jung et al., 2016; Loureiro et al., 2020; Trun fi o et al., 2020; Yung &…”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialDigitizing Intangible Cultural Heritage Embodied: State of the Art
Hou, Y., Kenderdine, S., Picca, D., Egloff, M., & Adamou, A. (2022) · Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage · doi:10.1145/3494837 · Cited by 323
Virtual Reality in Museums: Exploring the Experiences of Museum Professionals
Shehade, M., & Stylianou-Lambert, T. (2020) · Applied Sciences · doi:10.3390/app10114031 · Cited by 255
Ferdani, D., Fanini, B., Piccioli, M. C., Carboni, F., & Vigliarolo, P. (2020) · Journal of Cultural Heritage · doi:10.1016/j.culher.2019.12.004 · Cited by 212
A Comparison of Immersive Realities and Interaction Methods: Cultural Learning in Virtual Heritage
Bekele, M. K., & Champion, E. (2019) · Frontiers in Robotics and AI · doi:10.3389/frobt.2019.00091 · Cited by 209
“The benefits of immersive reality technologies and Human-Computer-Interaction (HCI) methods for the preservation, representation and dissemination of cultural heritage have been widely researched in CH (Addison and Gaiani, 2000; Papagiannakis et al., 2008; Adhani and Rambli, 2012; Anthes et al., 2016; Bekele et al., 2…”
BackgroundA Review of Augmented Reality Applications for History Education and Heritage Visualisation
Challenor, J., & Ma, M. (2019) · Multimodal Technologies and Interaction · doi:10.3390/mti3020039 · Cited by 198
“[32] in their survey of these technologies for usage in cultural heritage.”
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AR/MR Remote Collaboration on Physical Tasks: A Review
Wang, P., Bai, X., Billinghurst, M., et al. (2021) · Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing · doi:10.1016/j.rcim.2020.102071 · Cited by 177
Augmented reality in the tourism industry: A multi-stakeholder analysis of museums
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"I feel it is my responsibility to stream"
Lu, Z., Annett, M., Fan, M., & Wigdor, D. (2019) · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3290605.3300459 · Cited by 161
“The use of serious games [16, 29], tangible interaction [38], crowdsourcing [34], wikis [14, 36], and augmented and virtual reality [3] have been explored for cultural heritage education, in cases such as indigenous customs [20], festivals [8], sports and games [47], and dance [21].”
BackgroundThree-Dimensional Point Cloud Semantic Segmentation for Cultural Heritage: A Comprehensive Review
Yang, S., Hou, M., & Li, S. (2023) · Remote Sensing · doi:10.3390/rs15030548 · Cited by 159
Exploring the trends of educational virtual reality games: a systematic review of empirical studies
Oyelere, S. S., Bouali, N., Kaliisa, R., Obaido, G., Yunusa, A. A., & Jimoh, E. R. (2020) · Smart Learning Environments · doi:10.1186/s40561-020-00142-7 · Cited by 155
“Contemporary computer hardware and software have improved significantly in size, speed, and precision, and a key to the creation of immersive technological applications (Bekele, Pierdicca, Frontoni, Malinverni, & Gain, 2018; Voinea, Girbacia, Postelnicu, & Marto, 2018).”
BackgroundImmersive technologies for tourism: a systematic review
Pratisto, E. H., Thompson, N., & Potdar, V. M. (2022) · Information Technology & Tourism · doi:10.1007/s40558-022-00228-7 · Cited by 158
Lian, Y., & Xie, J. (2024) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su16167125 · Cited by 228
Trunfio, M., Jung, T. H., & Campana, S. (2022) · Information & Management · doi:10.1016/j.im.2022.103698 · Cited by 169
Virtual and Augmented Reality for Developing Emotional Intelligence Skills
Papoutsi, C., Drigas, A. S., & Skianis, C. A. (2021) · International Journal of Recent Contributions from Engineering Science & IT (iJES) · doi:10.3991/ijes.v9i3.23939 · Cited by 127
“The presentation of those elements can be either direct or indirect and it refers to either the synchrony or the diachrony of a theme, providing a plethora of activities to the maker himself or to the user [9].”
BackgroundRethinking Metaverse Tourism: A Taxonomy and an Agenda for Future Research
Yang, F. X., & Wang, K. Y. (2023) · Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research · doi:10.1177/10963480231163509 · Cited by 134
“…the degree of virtuality– reality exchange, which denotes informational and behavioral interaction between real and virtual content, facilitated by a variety of interaction methods, such as tangible, collaborative, device-based, and sensor-based interfaces (Bekele et al., 2018; Lee et al., 2021).”
Interaction in eXtended Reality Applications for Cultural Heritage
Okanović, V., Ivkovic-Kihic, I., Bošković, D., Mijatović, B., Prazina, I., Skaljo, E., & Rizvić, S. (2022) · Applied Sciences · doi:10.3390/app12031241 · Cited by 120
“…is a general agreement that visual CH tools suitable for users unskilled in multimedia technologies are important for CH dissemination, and that museums and museum installations that do not introduce new interactive technologies are regarded as less interesting and attract fewer visitors [27].”
InfluentialAugmented Reality for Learning Mathematics: A Systematic Literature Review
Ahmad, N. I. N., & Junaini, S. N. (2020) · International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (iJET) · doi:10.3991/ijet.v15i16.14961 · Cited by 115
“AR starts between the real world and augmented virtuality [3].”
BackgroundA systematic review of virtual 3D reconstructions of Cultural Heritage in immersive Virtual Reality
Rodríguez-Garcia, B., Guillen-Sanz, H., Checa, D., et al. (2024) · Multimedia Tools and Applications · doi:10.1007/s11042-024-18700-3 · Cited by 115
Anwar, M. S., Yang, J. C., Frnda, J., Choi, A., Baghaei, N., & Ali, M. (2025) · Virtual Reality · doi:10.1007/s10055-025-01126-z · Cited by 122
“The available MR applications are very useful in cultural heritage education by facilitating virtual reconstruction of historical locations, the creation of historic sites, and more active learning scenarios that enhance history (Bekele et al. 2018).”
A bibliometric analysis of immersive technology in museum exhibitions: exploring user experience
Li, J., Wider, W., Ochiai, Y., & Fauzi, M. A. (2023) · Frontiers in Virtual Reality · doi:10.3389/frvir.2023.1240562 · Cited by 144
“The integration of enabling technologies in Cultural Heritage has witnessed signi fi cant advancements since the mid-2000s, speci fi cally focusing on immersive technologies (Bekele et al., 2018; Bozzelli et al., 2019).”
BackgroundInfluentialGonzález, C., Solanes, J. E., Muñoz, A., Gracia, L., Girbés-Juan, V., & Tornero, J. (2021) · Journal of Manufacturing Systems · doi:10.1016/j.jmsy.2021.02.013 · Cited by 115
Initial User-Centered Design of a Virtual Reality Heritage System: Applications for Digital Tourism
Poux, F., Valembois, Q., Mattes, C., et al. (2020) · Remote Sensing · doi:10.3390/rs12162583 · Cited by 109
“These are then reworked to populate various immersive experiences, such as virtual reality and augmented reality (AR) experiments [4,5].”
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Trček, D. (2022) · Heritage Science · doi:10.1186/s40494-021-00643-9 · Cited by 131
“Similarly [33] presents a multimedia approach to the dissemination, communication, and exploitation of cultural heritage that enhances the way culture is experienced.”
BackgroundRahaman, H., Champion, E., & Bekele, M. K. (2019) · Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage · doi:10.1016/j.daach.2019.e00102 · Cited by 101
Measuring the impact of functional and experiential mixed reality elements on a museum visit
Trunfio, M., Campana, S., & Magnelli, A. (2019) · Current Issues in Tourism · doi:10.1080/13683500.2019.1703914 · Cited by 101
“New realities create a multi-dimensional environment in which a reality-virtuality continuum enhances diverse and unusual visitor experiences (Bekele et al., 2018; Yung & Khoo-Lattimore, 2019).”
BackgroundMethodResultInfluentialStorytelling and user experience in the cultural metaverse
Yang, S. (2023) · Heliyon · doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14759 · Cited by 108
Cultural Heritage in Fully Immersive Virtual Reality
Cecotti, H. (2022) · Virtual Worlds · doi:10.3390/virtualworlds1010006 · Cited by 98
“, extended reality (XR)) for cultural heritage highlighting applications in education, exhibition enhancement, exploration, reconstruction, and virtual museums [4].”
BackgroundSurvey: Using Augmented Reality to Improve Learning Motivation in Cultural Heritage Studies
González Vargas, J. C., Fabregat, R., Carrillo-Ramos, A., & Jové, T. (2020) · Applied Sciences · doi:10.3390/app10030897 · Cited by 97
“As mentioned in Ardissono, Azuma, Bekele and Čopič [11,14,42,50,51], the tracking methods can be: Tracking methodology: refers to how the system executes the AR content in the , Device: identify if the system needs to use a special device such as a head-mounted display (HMD), handheld devices,…”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialA survey of multisensory VR and AR applications for cultural heritage
Marto, A., Gonçalves, A., Melo, M., & Bessa, M. (2021) · Computers & Graphics · doi:10.1016/j.cag.2021.10.001 · Cited by 113
Digital Revolution for Hajj Crowd Management: A Technology Survey
Felemban, E. A., Rehman, F. U., Biabani, S. A. A., et al. (2020) · IEEE Access · doi:10.1109/access.2020.3037396 · Cited by 90
“Mixed reality (MR) integrates real and virtual worlds and produces an environment with both physical and digital objects to exist side by side and visualizes them in such a way that users feel that they are interacting with them in a real environment [32], [33].”
BackgroundInteractions in Augmented and Mixed Reality: An Overview
Papadopoulos, T., Evangelidis, K. E., Kaskalis, T. H., et al. (2021) · Applied Sciences · doi:10.3390/app11188752 · Cited by 90
“Categorizations commonly taking place are based on the field of application (tourism, architecture, medicine) the device of application (mobile, desktop) [28], or umbrella terms (multimodal, tangible, collaborative) [29] and without focusing on the modality or the context of interaction.”
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Vlase, I., & Lähdesmäki, T. (2023) · Humanities and Social Sciences Communications · doi:10.1057/s41599-023-01582-5 · Cited by 114
“The second most productive publication is Heritage, followed by ACM Journal of Computing and Cultural Heritage, with 200 and 143 articles, respectively.”
BackgroundInfluentialThe Use of Virtual Reality in Back Pain Rehabilitation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Bordeleau, M., Stamenkovic, A., Tardif, P.-A., & Thomas, J. (2022) · The Journal of Pain · doi:10.1016/j.jpain.2021.08.001 · Cited by 86
Enhancing cultural heritage outdoor experience with augmented-reality smart glasses
Litvak, E., & Kuflik, T. (2020) · Personal and Ubiquitous Computing · doi:10.1007/s00779-020-01366-7 · Cited by 85
“If users can approach the CH asset, then a vision-based method is a suitable choice; otherwise, long-range optical sensors and GPS localization are more appropriate [4].”
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An evaluation model to assess the communication effects of intangible cultural heritage
Xue, K., Li, Y., & Meng, X. (2019) · Journal of Cultural Heritage · doi:10.1016/j.culher.2019.05.021 · Cited by 92
Digital Restoration of Cultural Heritage With Data-Driven Computing: A Survey
Basu, A., Paul, S., Ghosh, S., Das, S., Chanda, B., Bhagvati, C., & Snåšel, V. (2023) · IEEE Access · doi:10.1109/access.2023.3280639 · Cited by 93
“A survey on the exploration, reconstruction and exhibition of cultural heritage using virtual, augmented and mixed realities has been presented by Bekele et al. in [276].”
BackgroundA framework for constructing and evaluating the role of MR as a holographic virtual guide in museums
Hammady, R., Ma, M., Alkalha, Z., & Strathearn, C. (2021) · Virtual Reality · doi:10.1007/s10055-020-00497-9 · Cited by 90
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The use of virtual reality in studying prejudice and its reduction: A systematic review
Tassinari, M., Aulbach, M. B., & Jasinskaja‐Lahti, I. (2022) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0270748 · Cited by 99
“In VR, immersion is allowed by fully experiencing the simulated world through the senses of sight and sound, while the surrounding environment is not visible to the user [36].”
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Mixed reality-based user interface for quality control inspection of car body surfaces
Muñoz, A., Mahiques, X., Solanes, J. E., et al. (2019) · Journal of Manufacturing Systems · doi:10.1016/j.jmsy.2019.08.004 · Cited by 79
Zhang, J., Yahaya, W. A. J. W., & Sanmugam, M. (2024) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su16156446 · Cited by 113
“Exhibitions using VR and AR technologies began to offer more interactive and immersive experiences Exhibitions using VR and AR technologies began to offer more interactive and immersive experiences, making history and culture more accessible to the general public [5].”
BackgroundChang, C., Kuo, H., & Du, Z. (2023) · Virtual Reality · doi:10.1007/s10055-023-00817-9 · Cited by 115
“This type of working environment can be created by MR and VR (Bekele et al. 2018).”
BackgroundCabero-Almenara, J., & Roig-Vila, R. (2019) · Applied Sciences · doi:10.3390/app9142907 · Cited by 86
“Augmented Reality (AR) is becoming an emergent technology with great potential in various and largely different fields of application, such as geography, with regard to watershed control [1], medicine, cultural heritage [2] or industry [3].”
BackgroundDigital 3D Technologies for Humanities Research and Education: An Overview
Münster, S. (2022) · Applied Sciences · doi:10.3390/app12052426 · Cited by 90
X-Reality Museums: Unifying the Virtual and Real World Towards Realistic Virtual Museums
Margetis, G., Apostolakis, K. C., Ntoa, S., et al. (2020) · Applied Sciences · doi:10.3390/app11010338 · Cited by 71
“VR technology, as an immersive medium fully occupying (mainly, but not exclusively) the human auditory and visual sensory channels is not new, its roots debatably dating back before the 1960s [11].”
BackgroundYu, J., Wang, Z., Cao, Y., Cui, H., & Zeng, W. (2024) · Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage · doi:10.1145/3705613 · Cited by 71
“In particular, the contextual storytelling method based on VR technology has increasingly been applied in preserving ICH [5, 14].”
Computing for Chinese Cultural Heritage
Li, M., Wang, Y., & Xu, Y. (2021) · Visual Informatics · doi:10.1016/j.visinf.2021.12.006 · Cited by 70
3D Reconstruction, Digital Twinning, and Virtual Reality: Architectural Heritage Applications
Bevilacqua, M. G., Russo, M., Giordano, A., et al. (2022) · IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW) · doi:10.1109/vrw55335.2022.00031 · Cited by 70
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A Survey on Cross‐Virtuality Analytics
Fröhler, B., Anthes, C., Pointecker, F., Friedl-Knirsch, J., Schwajda, D., Riegler, A., Tripathi, S., Holzmann, C., Brunner, M., Jodlbauer, H., et al. (2022) · Computer Graphics Forum · doi:10.1111/cgf.14447 · Cited by 69
Systematic Review of Multimodal Human–Computer Interaction
Azofeifa, J. D., Noguez, J., Ruiz, S., Espinosa, J. M. M., Magana, A. J., & Beneš, B. (2022) · Informatics · doi:10.3390/informatics9010013 · Cited by 68
“Bekele et al. [9] mention that the use of technologies, such as AR and VR, enables a user-centered presentation and makes cultural heritage digitally accessible, mainly when physical access is restricted.”
BackgroundPaolis, L. D. D., Gatto, C., Corchia, L., & Luca, V. D. (2022) · Virtual Reality · doi:10.1007/s10055-022-00712-9 · Cited by 63
“In recent years, the evolution of technologies has opened up new frontiers and found innovative solutions in the field of tourism and enhancement of cultural heritage (Bekele et al. 2018).”
BackgroundXu, N., Li, Y., Wei, X., Xie, L., Yu, L., & Liang, H.-N. (2024) · International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction · doi:10.1080/10447318.2023.2171350 · Cited by 75
“Bekele et al. (2018) argued that the full potential of TAR interface allows users to view the augmented information and interact with the augmented view through the physical object.”
BackgroundAR in the Architecture Domain: State of the Art
Russo, M. (2021) · Applied Sciences · doi:10.3390/app11156800 · Cited by 67
“The application of ICT for cultural content reading, understanding, and communication is already a consolidated practice in the cultural computing domain [7]; it deepens digital applications in the arts and social sciences to represent, enhance, and extend knowledge, introducing new creative processes [8,9].”
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Damala, A., Ruthven, I. G., & Hornecker, E. (2019) · Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage · doi:10.1145/3297717 · Cited by 65
“…on one type of technology, such as digital audio and multimedia guides (Tallon and Walker 2008), interactive tabletops (Hornecker 2008), AR (Damala and Stojanovic 2012), Mixed Reality (Benko et al. 2004), VR (Kassahun et al. 2018), and tangible and embodied interaction (Petrelli et al. 2014).”
BackgroundApplying immersive virtual reality for remote teaching architectural history
Chan, C.-S., Bogdanović, J., & Kalivarapu, V. (2021) · Education and Information Technologies · doi:10.1007/s10639-021-10786-8 · Cited by 65
“Recently, the technological development in AR, VR, and MR 4 had been reviewed to explore the benefits and potential hurdles of applying VR to Digital Cultural Heritage (Bekele et al., 2018).”
BackgroundAugmented and Virtual Reality to Enhance the Didactical Experience of Technological Heritage Museums
Bachiller, C., Monzó, J. M., & Solaz, B. R. (2023) · Applied Sciences · doi:10.3390/app13063539 · Cited by 74
Tennent, P., Martindale, S., Benford, S., Darzentas, D., Brundell, P., & Collishaw, M. (2020) · Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage · doi:10.1145/3369394 · Cited by 66
“To briefly summarise just a few examples (see [4] for a comprehensive survey), VR enables visitors to experience virtual exhibitions either off site or in a dedicated space in the museum as a form of virtual tourism [24][49][50][51], may improve accessibility [17], or enable communication between local and remote visi…”
Impact of multisensory extended reality on tourism experience journey
Santoso, H. B., Wang, J., & Windasari, N. A. (2022) · Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology · doi:10.1108/jhtt-01-2021-0036 · Cited by 67
Determining the Key Drivers for the Acceptance and Usage of AR and VR in Cultural Heritage Monuments
Wen, X., Sotiriadis, M. D., & Shen, S. (2023) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su15054146 · Cited by 63
Augmented Reality to Engage Visitors of Science Museums through Interactive Experiences
Spadoni, E., Porro, S., Bordegoni, M., et al. (2022) · Heritage · doi:10.3390/heritage5030071 · Cited by 62
“Many other examples and case studies can be found in [6,18–20], which present comprehensive surveys and analyses of the state of the art of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality technologies and applications for cultural heritage.”
BackgroundChong, H. T., Lim, C. K., Ahmed, M. F., et al. (2021) · Electronics · doi:10.3390/electronics10121430 · Cited by 61
“Various complication obstructs technology acceptance and widespread of technology for practice [37].”
BackgroundSun, T., Jin, T., Huang, Y., Li, M., Wang, Y., Jia, Z., & Fu, X. (2023) · International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction · doi:10.1080/10447318.2023.2232976 · Cited by 62
“However, the advantages of digital technology provide new avenues for the preservation, display, and distribution of CH (Bekele et al., 2018), which can enhance the cultural experience and the effectiveness of CH knowledge education (Dincelli & Yayla, 2022).”
BackgroundBlanco-Pons, S., Carrión‐Ruiz, B., Lerma, J. L., & Bonilla, V. V. (2019) · Journal of Cultural Heritage · doi:10.1016/j.culher.2019.03.014 · Cited by 65
Culture 4 all: accessibility-enabled cultural experiences through immersive VR360 content
Montagud, M., Orero, P., & Matamala, A. (2020) · Personal and Ubiquitous Computing · doi:10.1007/s00779-019-01357-3 · Cited by 60
The Use of Mixed, Augmented and Virtual Reality in History of Art Teaching: A Case Study
Almenara, J. C., Cejudo, M. D. C. L., & Martínez-Roig, R. (2022) · Applied System Innovation · doi:10.3390/asi5030044 · Cited by 59
Virtual Tourism and Digital Heritage: An Analysis of VR/AR Technologies and Applications
Siddiqui, M. S., Syed, T. A., Nadeem, A., Nawaz, W., & Alkhodre, A. B. (2022) · International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications · doi:10.14569/ijacsa.2022.0130739 · Cited by 60
“in [33] have reviewed the trends in VR/AR/MR that can benefit the cultural heritage paradigm.”
BackgroundAdopting extended reality? A systematic review of manufacturing training and teaching applications
de Giorgio, A., Monetti, F. M., Maffei, A., Romero, M., & Wang, L. (2023) · Journal of Manufacturing Systems · doi:10.1016/j.jmsy.2023.10.016 · Cited by 59
Metaverse for Education: Developments, Challenges, and Future Direction
Chamola, V., Peelam, M. S., Mittal, U., Hassija, V., Singh, A., Pareek, R., Mangal, P., Sangwan, D., de Albuquerque, V. H. C., Mahmud, M., et al. (2025) · Computer Applications in Engineering Education · doi:10.1002/cae.70018 · Cited by 87
Jin, S., Fan, M., & Kadir, A. (2021) · International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction · doi:10.1080/10447318.2021.1930389 · Cited by 62
“In the context of cultural learning, the spatial characteristics of IVR technology enable users to freely explore through authentic historical sites or interact with realistic 3D replicas (Bekele et al., 2018).”
BackgroundPaulauskas, L., Paulauskas, A., Blažauskas, T., Damaševičius, R., & Maskeliūnas, R. (2023) · Technologies · doi:10.3390/technologies11020036 · Cited by 67
Bridging cultural heritage and communities through digital technologies
Giglitto, D., Ciolfi, L., Claisse, C., et al. (2019) · doi:10.1145/3328320.3328386 · Cited by 54
“the technology deployed includes Linked Data [8, 52], crowdsourcing support systems [52], exergaming [32], wikis [30], and virtual reality [9].”
Bruno, F., Ricca, M., Lagudi, A., et al. (2020) · Journal of Marine Science and Engineering · doi:10.3390/jmse8110955 · Cited by 53
“Particularly, Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) have been used on several occasions for allowing users/tourists to explore and get educated on cultural heritage [8,9].”
BackgroundExtended Reality (XR) for Condition Assessment of Civil Engineering Structures: A Literature Review
Çatbaş, F. N., Luleci, F., Zakaria, M., Bağcı, U., LaViola, J. J., Cruz‐Neira, C., & Reiners, D. (2022) · Sensors · doi:10.3390/s22239560 · Cited by 57
“Some of the studies that address heritage preservation concern the safety of old civil structures and employ any XR tool included in the use case of structural condition assessment in this paper.”
Virtual Reality and Spatial Augmented Reality for Social Inclusion: The “Includiamoci” Project
Luca, V. D., Gatto, C., Liaci, S., Corchia, L., Chiarello, S., Faggiano, F., Sumerano, G., & Paolis, L. T. D. (2023) · Information · doi:10.3390/info14010038 · Cited by 53
The Influence of Collaborative and Multi-Modal Mixed Reality: Cultural Learning in Virtual Heritage
Bekele, M. K., Champion, E., McMeekin, D. A., et al. (2021) · Multimodal Technologies and Interaction · doi:10.3390/mti5120079 · Cited by 52
“Phase three: Design and implementation • From Photo to 3D to Mixed Reality: A Complete Workflow for Cultural Heritage Visualisation and Experience [15].”
BackgroundInfluentialAugmented reality systems in the cultural heritage domains: A systematic review
Ramtohul, A., & Khedo, K. K. (2024) · Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage · doi:10.1016/j.daach.2024.e00317 · Cited by 52
Multisensory Metaverse-6G: A New Paradigm of Commerce and Education
ALSAMH, M. H., Hawbani, A., Kumar, S., & Alsamhi, S. H. (2024) · IEEE Access · doi:10.1109/access.2024.3392838 · Cited by 63
“Metaverse has enormous benefits for cultural heritage, especially for investigation, reconstruction, and display improvement [29].”
BackgroundAugmented Reality Games and Presence: A Systematic Review
Marto, A., & Gonçalves, A. (2022) · Journal of Imaging · doi:10.3390/jimaging8040091 · Cited by 48
“Studies aiming to enhance our understanding of the impact of AR largely support its usage as can be observed in systematic reviews focused on the advantages of AR in education [3], in medical training [4], in patients with autism [5], in industrial maintenance [6], in cultural heritage [7], etc.”
BackgroundHutson, J., & Olsen, T. (2022) · Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice · doi:10.33423/jhetp.v22i2.5036 · Cited by 51
A Virtual Reality Platform for Analyzing Remote Archaeological Sites
Cassidy, B., Sim, G., Robinson, D. W., & Gandy, D. A. (2019) · Interacting with Computers · doi:10.1093/iwc/iwz011 · Cited by 52
“Designing virtual heritage spaces is a well-researched area (Bekele et al., 2018).”
BackgroundTowards Enhancing Virtual Museums by Contextualizing Art through Interactive Visualizations
Meinecke, C., Hall, C., & Jänicke, S. (2022) · Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage · doi:10.1145/3527619 · Cited by 56
“Kabassi [44] evaluated the state-of-the-art of museum websites including 3D environments and mobile apps, while Bekele et al. [4] surveyed AR, VR, and Mixed Reality technologies for Cultural Heritage collections.”
BackgroundHäkkilä, J., Hannula, P., Luiro, E., Launne, E., Mustonen, S., Westerlund, T., & Colley, A. (2019) · International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (MUM) · doi:10.1145/3365610.3368425 · Cited by 50
“[3] present a meta-review of prior works applying Virtual and Augmented reality solutions to cultural heritage applications.”
BackgroundSylaiou, S., Dafiotis, P., Koukopoulos, D. K., Koukoulis, K., Vital, R., Antoniou, A., & Fidas, C. A. (2023) · Journal of Cultural Heritage · doi:10.1016/j.culher.2023.11.002 · Cited by 65
Grand Challenges in Immersive Technologies for Cultural Heritage
Wang, H., Du, J., Li, Y., Zhang, L., & Li, X. (2025) · International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction · doi:10.1080/10447318.2025.2475996 · Cited by 80
“Bekele offers an analysis of immersive technologies in cultural heritage from before 2018, noting potential barriers but missing recent advancements [1].”
InfluentialComputational methods and rural cultural & natural heritage: A review
Barrientos, F. R., Martin, J., Luca, C. D., et al. (2021) · Journal of Cultural Heritage · doi:10.1016/j.culher.2021.03.009 · Cited by 47
“Particularly interesting is the extensive and exhaustive survey of AR/VR/MR applied to cultural heritage in [36] , where the authors analyse every technology, and every option within those technologies, with application examples.”
Low, D. Y. S., Poh, P. E., & Tang, S. Y. (2022) · Education for Chemical Engineers · doi:10.1016/j.ece.2022.02.004 · Cited by 48
Bolter, J. D., Engberg, M., & MacIntyre, B. (2021) · The MIT Press eBooks · doi:10.7551/mitpress/11708.001.0001 · Cited by 46
Exploring Cultural Heritage Using Augmented Reality Through Google’s Project Tango and ARCore
Voinea, G.-D., Gîrbacia, F., Postelnicu, C., & Marto, A. (2018) · Communications in computer and information science · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-05819-7_8 · Cited by 46
“These pioneer projects were followed by other research projects related to mobile AR applied to cultural heritage sites aiming at exhibition enhancement, being followed by reconstruction and exploration [18].”
BackgroundWalkable Mixed Reality Map as interaction interface for Virtual Heritage
Bekele, M. K. (2019) · Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage · doi:10.1016/j.daach.2019.e00127 · Cited by 46
Learning experience design for augmented reality
Czerkawski, B. C., & Berti, M. (2021) · Research in Learning Technology · doi:10.25304/rlt.v29.2429 · Cited by 46
Augmented Reality Applications to Support the Promotion of Cultural Heritage
Cisternino, D., Corchia, L., Luca, V. D., Gatto, C., Liaci, S., Scrivano, L., Trono, A., & Paolis, L. T. D. (2021) · Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage · doi:10.1145/3460657 · Cited by 45
“In recent years, numerous AR applications have been implemented to improve the fruition in cultural heritage and offer more personalized tourist itineraries [8].”
BackgroundeXtended Reality (XR) Experiences in Museums for Cultural Heritage: A Systematic Review
da Silva, M. R., & Teixeira, L. (2022) · Lecture notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-99188-3_5 · Cited by 44
Metadata
- Authors
- Bekele, M. K., Pierdicca, R., Frontoni, E., Malinverni, E. S., & Gain, J.
- Affiliations
- University of Cape Town (ZA)
- Marche Polytechnic University (IT)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage
- Published
- 2018-03-22
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 1-36
- ISSN
- 1556-4711 (ISSN-L)
- 1556-4673
- OpenAlex
- W2790695540
- Semantic Scholar
- cdeda2c21fdfe930327cbca424f8ce5ac9d30c67
- Cited by
- 1,147
- References
- 167
- Citations by year
- 2026: 215 · 2025: 199 · 2024: 144 · 2023: 163 · 2022: 145 · 2021: 119 · 2020: 82 · 2019: 63 · 2018: 17
- FWCI
- 34.82
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage (publishedVersion)
- Università Politecnica delle Marche (Università Politecnica delle Marche) (submittedVersion)
- eSpace (Curtin University) (submittedVersion)
- U-PAD Unimc - Open Digital Publications (University of Macerata) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Hasso-Plattner Institute
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Augmented Reality Applications
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Museology › Museums and Cultural Heritage
- Keywords
- augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality, cultural heritage, digital heritage, virtual museum, heritage education, heritage reconstruction, digital accessibility, interaction interfaces
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