Evaluation of an Augmented Reality for Historical Context Experiences of 3D Restored Court Paintings

Court painting is a traditional Korean type of painting that depicts royal events. It should be understood in the context of royal rituals and historical writing. Therefore, it is only possible for visitors of a museum with historical knowledge to interpret the content accurately. This problem is often identified in traditional paintings in other countries, and existing methods have attempted to deal with it using digital media technologies. Most methods aim to reconstruct paintings as 3D virtual objects for visitors to view them. However, these methods prevent visitors from interacting with the historical events depicted in the paintings and do not explain the essential historical facts and stories that the paintings leave out. In this study, we propose an augmented reality system that provides 3D virtual restorations of information necessary for understanding court paintings and supports historical context experiences of royal events. Specifically, we restore the information required for the interpretation of the painting to a virtual 3D object so that visitors can intuitively understand the historical stories missing from the painting. In addition, the system allows visitors to experience royal events through various interactions. The structural design combines experiential learning theory and digital storytelling so that visitors can be exposed to historical knowledge in a stepwise manner. According to the user study results, our system provides visitors with a more immersive experience and gives more accurate information about royal events compared to the existing method. This result suggests that the proposed system effectively communicates historical information and stories of court paintings to visitors who view paintings that require prior historical knowledge.