Abstract:

The fact that nowadays digital technologies develop with a great pace and are used in many parts of our every-day life is not surprising anymore. By enhancing connectivity, inclusion, access to trade and public services, technology can be not only a facilitator but also a great equalizer. An integral part of the world of new technologies is the sphere of artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and virtual reality. The digital and technological landscape is constantly changing, and in many ways accelerating. Designers tasked to come up with innovative ideas must keep track of what is trending and where the creative opportunities are. Recognizing the changes that are occurring in the industry will help designers design smarter and make more informed creative decisions. Virtual, augmented and mixed reality products have continued to receive high levels of funding and investment during the 2010 decade. There has also been immense hype over these products during the decade, with evangelists of the technology believing that it will be used in all aspects of day-to-day life. So, now we can observe this prediction becoming our reality. In VR we have digital environments that shut out the real world. With AR, we have digital content on top of our real world. Whereas virtual reality replaces your vision, augmented reality adds to it. AR devices are transparent, letting you see everything in front of you as if you are wearing a weak pair of sunglasses. AR's value is in the way it can interpret, manipulate, and enhance the view of the real world in real time. There are a few key advantages to augmented reality, but one of the most important is usability. True AR interfaces provide an intuitive and elegant user experience for a variety of services and technologies. The most popular applications are Google Expeditions, Civilizations BBC, Spacecraft 3D AR, iSolarSystemAR). There is a lot of information regarding this topic. There are also many resources that offer you to get to know all the variety of applications that already exist and are periodically updated. For example, Mark Anderson provides The Periodic Tables of iOS Apps for AR and VR. So, it is very important to keep up with the times, in other words to get acquainted with innovations. In this perspective, it was decided to develop a useful tool for newcomers to Bragança city integrating augmented reality into the program that would help to explore Bragança town in easy way, find top interesting places of all kinds and not get lost in the process. First it was necessary collect enough information and data regarding the topic of augmented reality and information regarding most visited places of Bragança. Then, after revise the state of the art and test some tools to augmented reality, we started to plan and develop our guides using Metaverse Studio app. After finishing the stage of development, we started testing it and finally let people use it properly. Many feedbacks were received, including the results of a questionnaire to evaluate the usability, accessibility and functionality.

Keywords:

Virtual reality, augmented reality, AR and VR apps, AR App to Erasmus students.