Demonstrating the use of the alphabetic telegraph through a collaborative AR activity

Augmented reality (AR) has been extensively used in different contexts, including tourism and cultural heritage, in both commercial and research applications, and they are well known for their ability to capture the attention of their potential users. On the other hand, collaboration among groups in a museum context is proven to engage the visitors and offer a more personal experience. The combination of these two technics has not yet been thoroughly explored. In this work, we present a card-based AR application with the objective to engage the visitors in a collaborative activity designed to showcase on-site the use of a 19th century"s alphabetic telegraph, exhibited in the History Museum of the University of Athens. The users are able to manipulate photorealistic 3D models that simulate the operation of the telegraph transmitter and receiver and use them to send messages to one another. The application has been evaluated with 19 pairs of teenage students with very promising results.