CaldanAugmenty - Augmented Reality and Serious Game App for Urban Cultural Heritage Learning

This research presents CaldanAugmenty, a GPS-enabled geolocalised augmented reality (AR) application. Applied to the historic village of Caldana, the application uses serious gaming elements to create an interactive treasure hunt that offers users an enriching journey through the local history and architecture of the region. CaldanAugmenty features a unique collection of 3D animated historical characters that bring the village's heritage to life. In the treasure hunt, players must find these characters by exploring the physical landscape of Caldana; these characters appear within the AR interface at various points of interest. These characters delve into the local history and architectural heritage of the village and challenge users with intriguing questions that provide elements for localization of the treasures. CaldanAugmenty incorporates the village's hidden treasures into the virtual gameplay. These treasures are located in four real underground passages that are physically inaccessible for security reasons. The application incorporates these dungeons into a 'virtual tour' function, complete with immersive photo spheres. As users discover treasures during their virtual exploration, these are manifested in AR at the entrances to the real dungeons. The effectiveness of the application as an interactive educational tool was evaluated using a comprehensive questionnaire administered to 79 middle school students. The questionnaire was designed to assess the dimensions of intrinsic motivation, ease of use and intention to use the application in the future. Preliminary results suggest that CaldanAugmenty is a highly engaging tool to facilitate learning about local history and heritage, with the majority of students expressing a high intention to continue using the application.