Historical Oslo on a handheld device – a mobile augmented reality application

Abstract

Mobile augmented reality (AR) applications can provide just-in-time information based on the user’s preferences and context and thus improve the tourist experience. Due to various problems, the potential of this technology has yet to be fully exploited. In this paper, we present the design, implementation and evaluation of a mobile AR application for historical Oslo that aims to bring history to life by providing historical pictures of a location, depending on the direction in which the camera is pointing. This application can run offline and is designed as a generic framework where a similar application for a new city can be created by simply replacing the city-specific database.