International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies (iJIM) - Vol. 6, No. 3, July 2012
PAPER
SENSORY MEDIA: MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES IN DESIGNING A SITUATED & MOBILE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT FOR PAST TOPICS
Sensory Media: Multidisciplinary Approaches in
Designing a Situated & Mobile Learning Envi-
ronment for Past Topics
http://dx.doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v6i3.2097
G. Liestøl1, A. Doksrød2, Š. Ledas3 and T. Rasmussen1
1 University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
2 Midgard Historical Centre, Vestfold, Norway
3 Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania
Abstract—Handheld digital devices are rapidly increasing
their sensory capabilities for registering multiple types of
input, such as movement, orientation, position and touch, as
well as light and sound. Mobile Augmented Rreality is one
of the emerging forms of representation and expression that
exploits these sensory media. In the following text we will
present and discuss situated simulations as a type of indirect
augmented reality. In a situated simulation there is ap-
proximate identity between the 3D environment as dis-
played on the screen and the user's real perspective on a
given location. This makes it possible to create simulations
of relevant objects and environments related to a specific
place, for example, interpretations of its past. We present a
situated simulation – Borrehallen – reconstructing a hall
from the early Viking age according to recent archaeological
evidence. The simulation shows the structures as they once
might have been positioned in the old cultural landscape,
including multimodal information about a series of aspects
and objects. The simulation was tested and evaluated by
Year Six school children, as well as a smaller group of senior
citizens. In the article we approach the design and use of the
application system from multiple angles based on its inter-
disciplinary conditions and constraints: humanities in-
formed design; archaeology; 3D graphics and user studies.
Finally, we describe and discuss the users' response to the
various attributes of the application, and compare the main
differences in experience, interpretation and attitude be-
tween the two user groups.
Index Terms—Mobile Augmented Reality, Situated Simula-
tions, sitsim, Situated Learning, interdisciplinarity.
I. INTRODUCTION
Media literacy is constantly challenged and changed by
its interactions with emerging technologies in the digital
domains. Currently, mobile and location–based solutions
are gaining new ground – or places, to be more precise –
in the media market. This is partly due to the fact that
handheld digital devices, in the shape of smartphones and
tablets, are rapidly increasing their sensory capabilities for
registering multiple types of input such as: positioning –
where in the world the device is (by means of GPS, WiFi
base stations and cell towers); orientation – in which
direction it is pointed (applying a magnetometer/digital
compass); movement – how it is moved and gestured
(measured by the accellerometer and gyroscope), and of
course haptic input – how the user touches and manipu-
lates the phone's interface (via its surface, including screen
and physical buttons). These come in addition to more
traditional sensors for light (the phone’s camera for re-
cording still images and video), sound (using the micro-
phone to register audio input) and radiowaves for wireless
networking. The ongoing convergence of these hardware
sensors (more will find their way into the handheld de-
vices in the near future) give rise to the notion of sensory
media.
In this article we will describe and discuss our experi-
ences with development, testing and user evaluation of a
particular application of sensory media, a publication and
simulation platform we call situated simulations. A situ-
ated simulation (sitsim) is a type of mobile augmented
reality, which has been under development and testing in
educational settings over a period of several years. For a
closer description of the system and its evolution, see: [1,
2, 3, 4]. In a sitsim there is relative congruity between the
user's perspective in the real world and the perspective
into the virtual environment, which is displayed on the
screen (see figure 1).
The emergence of sensory media and augmented reality
presentation techniques creates opportunities for both
museum mediation to the public at large as well as learn-
ing in more organized and formal settings. In cultural
heritage and the museum sector there has always been a
Figure 1. The congruity of real and virtual perspectives makes it
possible to create alternative versions of a given environment, which
can be viewed on location. Here, the reconstructed Forum of Augustus
displayed on the phones screen and parts of the ancient remains in the
background. The illustration is produced with the snapshot–feature of
the application: using both the physical and the virtual camera.
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SENSORY MEDIA: MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES IN DESIGNING A SITUATED & MOBILE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT FOR PAST TOPICS
conflict between centre and periphery. Relics are removed
from the original often peripheral site and collected and
gathered in central locations. There, only to a limited
degree, are they made available for access and public
display. This creates both possibilities and problems. On
the one hand, we see a concentration of competencies and
improved preservation of artifacts as well as more effec-
tive mediations to larger audiences. On the other hand,
local communities are drained of their historical traces
when valuable objects are taken from their original con-
text and relocated in a central institution. This situation is
not only contradictory, but also paradoxical: museums
secure the objects, but lack the context, while the local
environment has the context, but the objects are absent.
Mobile augmented reality and situated simulations may
serve to remedy the conflict in this relationship. At the
same time the on location virtual return of deported arte-
facts, knowledge and information creates new pedagogical
opportunities for contextual and situated learning [5].
The research and development reported here is multi-
discipinary in the sense that it combines a variety of
knowledge fields, each possessing and practising different
constellations of competencies and knowledge. They span
from digital humanities and the use of rhetorical and
narratological devices, via archaeological methods and
museum mediation, to 3D graphic design and modelling,
and last but not least user testing and evaluation in a
media sociology perspective. These multiple perspectives
have been necessary conditions and ingredients in the
design and development process, and are thus reflected in
the disposition and framework of this article. It is there-
fore important that the various perspectives are voiced in
their own right and in a balanced manner.
In the following text we first present the archaeological
subject matter and its background, the recently discovered
Viking Age hall near the Borre grave field on the western
shore of the Oslo fjord. Then we describe the pedagogical
context of the local museum – Midgard historical centre –
and its involvement in the national programme for art and
culture, a collaboration between professionals and Norwe-
gian Schools (The Cutural Rucksäck/Den kulturelle skole-
sekken). Then the basic features of the situated simulation
Borrehallen are portrayed with particular focus on how the
virtual environment, including how its real time 3D ob-
jects and textures, are created and rendered. Then we go
on to outline and explain the user testing, both with the
school children and the senior citizens. Finally, we con-
clude with a general discussion and comparison of the
user evaluations and relate these to further research con-
siderations
II. THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL TOPIC AND CONTEXT
Within Scandinavia the Viking Period witnessed the
transformation from tribal to state societies and a change
of religions. Viking culture has contributed significantly
to the creation of cultural coherence, symbolic values and
cultural identity in the Nordic region, and it continues to
hold immense public and popular appeal world-wide. This
culture and its heritage evolved in close interaction within
a unique natural environment.
Borre National Park is located in the Horten municipal-
ity in Vestfold, Norway. Here you can witness Northern
Europe’s most comprehensive assembly of monumental
grave mounds from the Viking Age. There are seven
monumental mounds, three stone mounds and about 40
smaller mounds in the park, all erected in the period
between 600- 900 AD. Until recently it was believed that
this was the resting place of the Ynglings, one of the
oldest known dynasties in Scandinavia.
To date, none of the remaining mounds in Borre Na-
tional Park have been fully excavated. However, numer-
ous archaeological surveys have been carried out in Borre,
and interpretations of the material point towards Borre
being a central place and a royal seat of power during the
late Iron Age. If we consider the size of the monumental
mounds it is quite possible that several of the deceased
have been buried inside a ship, unfortunately there is little
hope of retrieving any material that is not severely dam-
aged.
Archaeological excavations in 1991 revealed traces of
settlements alongside the Park’s western stone fence;
these findings were re-analyzed in 2007 using geophysical
methods. Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) was used to
send radar pulses to visualise the subsurface in the Borre
Park. This non-intrusive method uses electromagnetic
radiation, and detects the reflected signal from subsurface
structures, and can detect objects, changes in material,
voids and cracks. Using the GPR, archaeologists revealed
several subsurface post holes, belonging to two big hall
buildings. The images from the GPR showed that both
halls had two rows of inner posts to support the structure,
and solid wall constructions filled with vertical planks
embedded in the ground. The walls of one of the halls
were curved, making the building 10-12 metres wide in
the mid-section and ca 8 metres towards the ends. The
total length of the hall has been measured to be around 40
metres [6].
The two halls were both placed on the same contour
line in the landscape, and pointing in the same direction.
They could have existed during the same historical period,
but it is also possible that they were used in two different
periods. The GPR scan also indicated a possible building
between the two halls, which indicates that there could
have been several generations of houses built during a
period that includes both Germanic Iron Age and Viking
Age, i.e. the same period the grave field was in use.
In archaeology, hall buildings like the one in Borre can
be identified among the house material from the 4th
Century onwards. The building consists of one room,
where the hearth was the source of heat and light. Arte-
facts found in these buildings indicate that the hall served
an official purpose; common findings are elaborate
glasses, weapons, gold and other objects clearly unrelated
to the daily grind. The halls can be viewed as a ceremonial
space, appropriate for expressing and maintaining the im-
Figure 2. Image from the GPR, showing the subsurface anomalies of
the northern hall building in Borre (left). To the right we see an image
interpretation of the subsurface anomalies that constitutes the post holes
of the two hall buildings (Photo, map and interpretation: UV Teknik,
Swedish National Heritage Board).
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SENSORY MEDIA: MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES IN DESIGNING A SITUATED & MOBILE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT FOR PAST TOPICS
portance of family and lineage. The nature of findings
from the halls is consistent with regard to this as they
betray traces of seats of honour or thrones, and remnants
of meals/feasts ands drinking rituals. It is very likely that
weddings and funerals were held here, that this was where
inheritance and property was handed down to the coming
generations, and where alliances and networks were
upheld [7].
In the Borrehallen sitsim we decided to reconstruct a
large real/virtual environment: the whole landscape from
the top of the great moraine down to the Viking Age sea
level of the fjord, thus placing the halls and the grave
mounds in their natural and strategic contexts. As a start-
ing point we decided to target the sitsim towards public at
large, but in particular the visiting school children.
III. THE CULTURAL RUCKSACK AT MIDGARD
HISTORICAL CENTRE
The Cultural Rucksack (Den kulturelle skolesekken) is
a national programme for art and culture provided by
professionals in Norwegian schools. The programme helps
school children to become acquainted with all kinds of
professional art and cultural expressions. The objectives of
the programme are to enable children and young people in
primary and secondary school to enjoy artistic and cultural
productions provided by professionals; to facilitate the
pupils’ access to a wide range of cultural expressions so
that they can become acquainted with, and develop an
understanding of, culture in all its forms; and to assist
schools in integrating different forms of cultural expres-
sion with their own efforts to attain learning goals.
Midgard Historical Centre has been part of The Cultural
Rucksack programme since 2001. Every year in May,
Year Six students (12-year olds) from all the primary
schools in Vestfold travel to Midgard to experience “a day
in the Viking Age”. The purpose of the day is to give the
pupils the chance to use all their senses in learning about
the Vikings and their life. The pupils are met by profes-
sional educators and the passing of knowledge is based
upon the children’s participation; they learn by doing, not
just by listening.
The classes are divided into four different stations upon
their arrival. During the day they rotate between the
stations: Viking games, Role-play, Viking craft and trade,
and archaeology. The pupils have 40 minutes in each
station. All the activities take place outdoors, in Borre
National Park and at the Viking playground outside the
Midgard Historical Centre.
At the role-play station the pupils take part in a drama-
tization of daily life on a Viking Age farm. The dramatiza-
tion is based on the storyline of a children’s book, and the
children are given the roles of the different characters in
the book. The Viking craft and trade station gives the
pupils the change to meet “real” Vikings and see old
traditions come to life. At the Viking playground outside
Midgard, the pupils gather to participate in various Viking
Age games and activities. This includes learning how to
shoot with a bow and arrow and throw axes at wooden
targets/poles, trying to make them stand.
The final station is led by an archaeologist, and here the
children get an introduction to archaeological fieldwork
through participation in a simulated excavation. The
children excavate the remnants of a “Viking house” from
a large scale sandbox, and find artefacts that would nor-
Figure 3. New interpretation of the findings from the archaeological
excavation in 1991, then believed to be settlements, now interpreted as a
feast hall (Image: Bjørn Myhre & Terje Gansum)
Figure 4. Illustration of Borrehallen in use point the device towards
the North. The archaeological evidence was discovered immediately
behind the stone fence in the background.
mally be found in a house from this period. From 2012
this station is called “Virtuell Vikingtid/Virtual Viking
Age”, and be replaced by the Borrehallen sitsim, focusing
on the two hall buildings discovered in 2007.
IV. BORREHALLEN – THE BASIC FEATURES
The Borrehallen sitsim builds on the several previous
simulations of past topics, which we have designed and
user tested over the last couple of years: in the Roman
Forum, on the Acropolis in Athens, and at the Oseberg
grave mound (see [3] and http://inventioproject.no/sitsim).
The basic dynamics of Borrehallen is related to the three
defining qualities of any mobile augmented reality appli-
cation: (1) the combination of real and virtual objects in a
real environment; (2) that the application runs interac-
tively and in real time; and (3) that it registers (aligns) real
and virtual objects with each other [8]. When using the
Borrehallen app on location the virtual and the real per-
spectives are in parallel. This means that when the user
changes position and moves the device in real space, the
information on the display changes accordingly. In a way
the screen then serves as a window where the user can
look into another version of the local environments, in this
case a reconstruction of the past (see Figure 4).
In addition to the basic dynamics of positioning,
movement and orientation we included a series of func-
tions available in the sitsim's feature set: links to addi-
tional information (audio narration, detail view of ob-
jects), transposition of a virtual camera relative to the
user's real position, both vertically and horizontally (fly in,
bird's view), and user generated links (pupils were given
elementary assignments that required the creation, naming
and positioning of a link including the assignment itself,
the written answers to the questions (see figure 5).
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Figure 5. Screenshots from the iPad version of Borrehallen. The group
of links (green border) positioned in front to the left are the assignments
posted by one group of pupils. The links (grey border) in front of the
larger hall building are system links. The perspective on the left is using
the 'Bird's view' feature. The virtual camera is then positioned 12 m
above the ground. Further adjustments of the altitude can be done using
the slider to the right.
V. CREATING THE VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT
Building the virtual environment is a crucial part of the
simulation creation, since it directly affects the perform-
ance, usability and even the beauty of the application.
Furthermore, this stage presents various challenges, some
of which are related to the other parts of the process and
some of which are quite separate. In this section we dis-
cuss the most important and sometimes complicated
challenges creating the Borrehallen environment.
As in all real-time simulations or visualizations, the 3D
environment in Borrehallen had to be optimal and adapted
for real-time rendering. It could not have large amounts of
polygonsi, materialsii or texturesiii, so this had to be taken
into account while modeling the scene. Since the applica-
tion was targeted at newer iOS devices (iPhone4 and
iPad2), it was decided to have around 50 000 polygons in
the scene. Another important aspect was the number of
draw–callsiv in the real–time rendering process, which
usually depend on the texture and material count. It was
decided that around 30 draw–calls should work well with
the mentioned amount of polygons. However, the scene
did not have large amounts of different objects, so even
though the number of textures had to be taken into ac-
count, it was not the main issue. The polygon count, on
the other hand, appeared to be a greater challenge.
The main building of the simulation had been recreated
previousy for still image rendering. The polygon count of
the original model was rather high, so it had to be reduced
to an amount that resulted in good performance, but little
loss of detail. Cleaning up and removing the unnecessary
(or invisible) polygons helped a lot. On the other hand,
merging some parts that use the same textures reduced the
material count, which means that there would be less
draw-calls in the scene.
The terrain was also one of the most detailed (in the
sense of polygon count) objects in the environment,
mostly because it had to cover an area of about 700 meters
in diameter. To achieve a good result, the terrain was
optimized in such a way that flatter or further areas had
fewer polygons, whereas the more detailed or centred
areas had more. Another issue was that the terrain could
not be limitless, but the limits had to be hidden and not
obvious to the user. In our interpretation the main area
consists mostly of hills and grass fields, surrounded by
forests. The forests have a rather evident contour, which
gave us the possibility to cover the terrain limits with the
tree line. The tree line, on the other hand, could be easily
represented with a textured rectangle strip. Such a strip
looks natural from a greater distance (See figure 6).
Figure 6. The view of the forest line from a distance (on the left), and
from close up (to the right) with polygons selected and visualised.
However, the forest hid the terrain limits only on one
side of the scene, not the other, which is the sea. Fortu-
nately, this part was easy to make, because the water and
its reflections cover the terrain. The forest almost reaches
the water at both ends, so the whole environment becomes
suitably bordered and hide its edges from the user. The
water edge is obvious, but appears like a natural horizon.
The empty space of the environment is then filled with a
skybox, which blends well with the terrain and makes the
scene more realistic.
The terrain creation introduced some other challenges
as well. One of them was the modeling process itself and
the effort to make it as accurate as possible. The landscape
had to be built from a regular contour height map, which
does not transfer to a 3D model. It had to be manually
converted to a black and white height map, which could
then be used as a displacement map. A panorama view,
assembled from photographs of the area, was used to
better understand the specifics of the terrain: the hills,
slope and other details. The final displacement map was
applied to a subdivided plane and the transformed model
was saved as a new mesh. This way the displacement
texture did its job, but was not directly needed anymore.
The mesh was then automatically optimized by reducing
the polygons as described before.
After making the terrain mesh, its material still had to
be created and applied. Since the landscape is rather
variable and needed to look natural, it was decided to use
a custom multi-texture shader for the material. It enabled
the usage of several overlapping textures that become
more or less visible in some areas. There were two main
textures and one additional. The two basic textures were
grass and dirt and they added the colour and variety to the
terrain. The images were tiling, which means that if you
put copies of them next to each other, you cannot obvi-
ously see the edges of each tile. This way a large terrain
model could be textured with quite small textures by
simply repeating them. The colour of the two textures was
made similar to the real ground colour in the photographs
of the location. To make the two layers work together, the
shader used the grass texture as a base and the dirt texture
was used with its transparency information to distinguish
the visible and less visible parts. The transparency, how-
ever, was not tiled, but scaled to the size of the whole
terrain area. Since scaling the textures makes them blurry
and the transition between grass and dirt did not need to
be sharp, the low resolution of the transparency layer was
adequate. The third layer of the terrain was used to make
the whole scene livelier. In particular, it simulated shad-
ows of moving clouds. This texture was mostly transpar-
ent and only some parts of it covered the terrain with
semi-transparent black spots. The texture coordinates were
animated (i.e. gradually changing over time), which made
these pseudo-shadows move through the landscape. For
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SENSORY MEDIA: MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES IN DESIGNING A SITUATED & MOBILE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT FOR PAST TOPICS
this reason, the texture was also tiling, so it just repeated
over time. With the described three layers it was possible
to have a natural and lively landscape, which accompanied
the main objects quite well. The result can be seen in
figure 7.
So far we have described how the basic scene was built.
But there was also a need to create some smaller details
that would represent the specifics of the site. In particular,
the wooden ornaments outside and inside the main build-
ing, some animals outdoors and several other objects
inside. The most challenging were the ornaments: they
could not be modeled because they would require too
many polygons. Another issue was the need to recreate
them from simple contours. The first problem was solved
by using a texture that had depth and lighting information
written into it. This was achieved by making a depth
texture and then baking the lighting into a wood texture.
(Figure 8 displays the process).
Going back to the essential decisions, it is worth men-
tioning that the scene did not feature characters or moving
objects (except the animals that were animated, but not
changing their position). Hence, there was no need to use
real–time lighting, which would be expensive in the
context of performance. It was decided to write the light-
ing and shadow information to the textures by using the
lightmap baking functionality that the Unity engine pro-
vides. This made it possible to have realistic shadows and
lighting, which even includes indirect lighting.
VI. USER TESTING AND EVALUATION WITH YEAR SIX
STUDENTS
In late May 2011, we tested the system at the Borre site,
with the help of about 200 pupils from elementary schools
in the region using iPad2. On the second day 88 of these
were also asked to answer questionnaires, 43 boys and 45
girls, all 11-12 years old. The majority had mobile phones,
but none of them smartphones. They all had experience
with some sort of game console, such as PS or Nintendo,
or they had either their own laptop or access to one. The
laptops were used for computer games, homework or
Facebook interaction. The most popular computer games
were Sims 2 and 3, and game sites like Habbo and 123
spill. There were no differences between boys and girls
regarding access to mobiles and ICTs. According to their
own estimate, they spent between five and ten hours per
week on the computer. The boys spent more time on their
computer than the girls, particularly with soccer games
and first person shooters like Call of Duty.
Before the trial, they were given a brief introduction to
the Borrehallen sitsim. They were also given some easy
assignments which required them to input written infor-
mation to the system. Immediately after the trial, which
lasted for about 30-40 minutes, they were asked to fill out
a brief questionnaire. The following is a summary of the
comments from the pupils.
Almost all the children expressed that they enjoyed the
application. They commented that it was "cool", "super",
"very nice", "exciting", "funny", and "well constructed".
All the comments were very positive. Some added that it
was a bit confusing, and not easy to know what but-
tons/links to press. On the question concerning what they
liked the best, they replied that it was "cool" to see what
had been on the site before, that the effects were "cool",
that “when one turns, the system follows”, "nice" that one
Figure 7. The first two images show the grass and dirt textures, the
third one is the clouds and the fourth one is the result on an actual
terrain (the checker pattern in the images displays their transparency
information).
Figure 8. The first image shows one of the ornaments that the wood
carver made. It only features lines for contours and some tones for basic
depth information. The second image shows a depth map with edited
edges to make them less sharp. The third picture displays the depth
applied and the lighting baked into a wood texture (this was done in 3D
modeling and rendering software). Finally, the fourth picture has some
tones added to make it look livelier. The screenshot on the right side of
the figure shows the finished texture applied to a 3D rectangle on the
building wall.
could move around, "nice" that one could enter the build-
ing, “that one could enter the old days”, "nice graphics",
etc. They particularly enjoyed the 3D objects inside the
hall that could be selected, turned, enlarged, etc. Most of
the children would prefer more objects presented in this
way. Also the “fly–in” function was “cool” and nice. They
had no problem with looking around inside the building,
even if they were dislocated from that position (due to the
"fly–in" function).
What they liked the least, was that it was only one
building, that it all was over rather quickly, and that the
sound had uneven balance between the gain of the various
audio types. The majority had however no problem with
the sound level. Some “lost contact with the system” a few
times, and needed help to continue. They all insisted that
the system was either easy or fairly easy to use. Some
commented that it was difficult to understand the system
in the beginning.
The majority of the children said it was easy to grasp
the function of the “links” or “signs” in the system, but
some argued that they were difficult to understand, and
that they would not have understood the purpose without
an explanation. Also, the majority thought it was a suit-
able level of information about the topic in the system,
although a substantial minority wanted more information
on the Viking way of life. They enjoyed the simple as-
signment that they were given, and some would have liked
more of that kind of activity.
The sound functioned well for the majority, but some
argued that the level was too low and that it was difficult
to understand what they were supposed to hear. On the
question of what they heard, they confirmed the sounds
embedded in the system: rain, thunder, hens, voices, birds.
Almost all of the pupils thought the voice comments were
easy to understand. Most of them did not miss more
textual information in the programme. They would rather
prefer more sound effects and audio comments. Some
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commented that it was difficult to see what happened on
the screen because of the bright sunlight.
The pupils thought of the relationship between the
screen reality and the physical reality as “cool” and
“strange”. Comments given were that it was "like steering
a camera", "strange", "different", "exciting", and that it
"looked real". On the question of whether they had learned
anything from trying out the system, the majority replied
that they knew more about what it looked like in the
Viking Age, including how the trees, buildings and ob-
jects may have been. Even more of the pupils replied that
they had learned to use an iPad, how to press buttons, and
generally how to use a system like this. However, the
majority also said they would have learned more from a
film or an article on the subject. To describe the system,
the children compared it with a computer game, Google
street view, with Runescape, and Nintendo Wii. But the
majority said that this was unique, they had never seen
anything like it before.
VII. USER TESTING AND EVALUATION WITH SENIOR
CITIZENS
The Borrehallen sitsim was also tested with the assis-
tance of eight senior members of the local community,
from the hypothesis that elderly people may experience
particular limitations (or particular advantages), due to
their generational and sensory experiences. Their ages
ranged from 65 to 85 years, with an average age of 75.
They were all interested in Viking history, but only mod-
erately experienced in using smart-phones, tablets, apps
and digital media in general. All had mobiles and PCs, but
were inexperienced in using touch-phones and GPS-
media. The participants were given a brief introduction
about the project and the technology with a focus on
content and purpose: to experience the no longer existing
Viking hall at the site where it was built more than thou-
sand years ago. The information given about the equip-
ment itself was fairly limited, since we wanted to test,
among other things, the intuitive nature of the interface.
All participants were supplied with an iPad and ear-
phones, and they were left to interact with the system
individually. The textual information on the screen that
introduces the application was considered informative and
easy-to-read, if not of big interest due to some impatience
to experience the simulation. When the graphical land-
scape appeared, the participants immediately understood
the possibility to move around, approach the reconstructed
hall and access information via the links (which they
preferred to call road signs).
At this point, the main obstacle for the group appeared:
The participants found it rather difficult to interact with
the screen in order to receive information. Partly due to
cold weather (and cold fingers), partly due to lack of
experience in the use of touch-screens, several of the
participants needed assistance with the touch-commands.
Some insisted that using the thumb for touching worked
better. Some of the participants found it awkward to hold
the iPad in one hand and do the touch-commands with the
other. Again, it was demonstrated that while the iPhone
terminal is small, it is better suited for operating while
walking [3].
In listening to the 'King' welcoming the participant into
the hall, the participants suggested that more information
could be received from the chief/king, possibly also from
Figure 9. School children and senior citizens exploring the Borrehallen
sitsim.
his wife. The possibility to focus on ornamental details
was very welcomed, as they were very receptive to the
beauty of Viking craft. The audio sound proved to be
generally good, but the in-world sounds (rain, wind,
hens….) were too low compared to the voice providing
audio comments. The comments were considered infor-
mative if somewhat elementary for the group, more de-
tailed information could have been provided.
It was a unanimous opinion among the group of elderly
participants that the system was interesting to use and that
it should have provided even more graphical information
about the area. The group did not expect the system to
replace human guiding, but considered that it could serve
as a promising supplement to human guiding.
VIII. CONCLUDING REMARKS AND FURTHER RESEARCH
In comparing the experience of the two field trial
groups there are several discrepancies, due to age differ-
ences and associated circumstances (knowledge, experi-
ence, interests, etc). While the group of senior citizens
joined the trial partly because of their interest for Viking
settlements and culture, the children did not share that
motivation. They were more directed towards what was
new, which was the technology itself. While the senior
citizens would have liked more information in the system
about the historical site, culture and daily life of the in-
habitants 1200 years ago, the children were clearly more
oriented towards the capacity of the system to simulate
another reality. The two groups were exploring two differ-
ent “realities”. To use the vocabulary of Bolter and Grusin
[8], they approached the remediation when using the
simulation in a immediacy versus a hypermediacy way.
The senior citizens, primarily interested in the subject
matter, saw through the medium itslef, while the the
school children were more focused on the mediation
process itself, its new features and functions.
Despite this difference both the use and evaluation indi-
cates that given further development mobile augmented
reality in general and situated simulation in particular may
serve as a new kind of learning tool employing new forms
of multimodal competencies. The fact that it is virtually
possible to relocate objects and environments, both in
space and time, through this kind of simulation in situ,
points to the relevance of situated learning [9] in this
context. In further development of the system we will
focus more directly at the learning potential, particularly
iJIM – Volume 6, Issue 3, July 2012 23
PAPER
SENSORY MEDIA: MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES IN DESIGNING A SITUATED & MOBILE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT FOR PAST TOPICS
for users to contribute with their own content, both in
formal and informal settings.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We would like to thank the following for their valuable
work making this project possible: Tomas Stenarson and
CodeGrind AB, Matilde Liestøl, Lena Fahre, Bjarte Einar
Aarseth, Magnus Liestøl and Richard Pilgrim.
REFERENCES
[1] Liestøl, G. (2009) 'Situated Simulations: A Prorotyped Augmented
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AUTHORS
G. Liestøl is professor at the Department of Media &
Communication, University of Oslo, (e–mail: gun-
nar.liestol@media.uio.no).
A. Doksrød is archaeologist at Midgard Historical Cen-
tre, Vestfold, Norway (e–mail:
anne.doksrod@vestfoldmuseene.no)
Š. Ledas is M.Sc. of Software Engineering at the Fac-
ulty of Mathematics & Informatics, Vilnius University,
Lithuania (e–mail: sarunas.ledas@gmail.com).
T. Rasmussen is professor at the Department of Media
& Communication, University of Oslo, (e–mail:
terje.rasmussen@media.uio.no).
The research has been funded by Arts Council Norway and Department
of Media & Communication, University of Oslo. Manuscript received 23
April 2012. Published as resubmitted by the authors 24 June 2012.
NOTES
i A 3D polygon is a shape made of multiple vertices that are
connected with edges, creating a closed chain (the inside of this
chain is filled in and together with the vertices and edges makes
the polygon). The 3D polygons are usually triangles.
ii A material is a set of information about the surface properties.
It holds the textures, colours and also the information about how
the surface reacts to light and other factors.
iii A texture is an image that is usually mapped on a 3D surface
and is needed to add more colour, bumpiness or other similar
details.
iv A draw-call is a single call to the graphics engine to perform
the drawing of an object. Some objects might consist of multiple
parts, which have to be drawn separately and therefore require
multiple draw-calls (e.g. if those parts have a different texture).
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