Update: Due to the need to work with physical objects, I think my original idea might be difficult to execute during the pandemic. Audrey, Georgia, and Shayna had all proposed augmented reality projects as well and I would be interested in working on developing any of those ideas.

Many objects in museums and at historical sites are heavily damaged or are incomplete fragments of a larger piece. In some of these cases, historians have been able to develop descriptions or visual representations of the original appearances of these objects which are likely fairly accurate. However, these attempts to depict the original appearance of an artifact can feel disconnected from the actual object.

Historical Lens will be an augmented reality app used to display these recreations in the same physical space as the object. It’s important that the objects being explored will truly be augmented when viewed through the app and not just immediately replaced by a digital model. Options would vary based on what information is available for each individual piece, but ideally, users would have several different ways of viewing an object such as superimposing a wireframe of the complete piece over a fragment or slowly fading in a digital recreation over the object.

This idea was partially inspired by a low-tech solution I’ve seen used at two historical sites, The Heidentor in Austria and Kruševac Fortress in Serbia. However, Historical Lens will be focused on smaller artifacts in museums rather than large-scale ruins. Objects explored in the app will likely fall into two categories, objects which are physically incomplete and objects which are complete but have changed significantly in appearance over time. Some examples of historical artifacts that fall into the first category are the Venus de Milo (current appearance and 3D model of a proposed restoration) and a papyrus fragment from a copy of the Book of the Dead (current appearance and proposed reconstruction). The second category would mainly include paintings. The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper are famous examples of paintings that have lost clarity or even entire features over time.

The intended audience for Historical Lens will be museum visitors using tablets provided at the museum or a downloadable mobile app. Potential museum collaborators will be the Harvard Art and History Museums or the Museum of Fine Arts. Development will require programming, UI/UX design, and 3D modeling. The scope of the project will also be very dependent on what data museum partners have about objects in their collection that would benefit from augmentation.