The Robinson House in the AR-Based Manassas Battlefield National Park Experience

Abstract

The historic Robinson House of Virginia’s Manassas Battlefield National Park survived the Civil War, but was destroyed in 1993 by an act of possible incendiarism. This research investigates how an augmented reality (AR) application for mobile devices could aid in virtually re-erecting history, such as the Robinson House, and thus provide educational, accessible, user-friendly apps for use at heritage sites. Initial results from this research show that AR-based experiences can be developed for heritage sites from customizable open source platforms accessible to historians and archaeologists. The prototype of the AR-based Manassas Battlefield National Park Experience highlights several opportunities for cross-disciplinary research between anthropology, geoinformation science and human-computer interaction.