SARIM: A gesture-based sound augmented reality interface for visiting museums

The objective of this work is to explore the use of sound augmented reality in order to enhance the museum visit. We aim to provide an audio guide to immerse the visitor in an audio scene consisting of ambient sounds and comments associated with the exhibits, while minimizing its effort to discover these objects and interact with the sound environment. The first contribution of this work is the implementation the concept proof of SARIM (Sound Augmented Reality Interface for visiting Museum). The second contribution is the modeling of the museum visit augmented by the sound dimension. Inspired from some existing models, the objective is to design a complete and integrated model that includes a representation of the visitor, the soundscape and the navigation parts. The purpose of this model is to facilitate the design of different scenarios based on the concept of audibility zones. The third contribution is the evaluation conducted in a real environment which is the Musée des arts et Métiers (MAM) in Paris. This evaluation has confirmed the usability, as well as the educational and playful positive impact of the audio augmented reality in general, and the SARIM in particular comparing to traditional audio-guides.