A university in Cornwall has been awarded a grant as part of an international collaboration on VR with international partners in China.
Falmouth University has been granted a £100,000 award by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UK Research and Innovation, along with researchers at Tongji University, digital partners VisionStar and the administration of the city of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province.
The prestigious award will explore a range of options and recommendations for public gardens around their use of augmented reality and virtual tools to inspire and delight diverse new audiences.
In recognition of the role gardens play in shaping local and regional culture, each locale will develop their own bespoke artefacts and participatory exhibit to help tell their story, engage non-traditional audiences and potentially – build on the research and exhibition to develop more innovative technology applications in the future.
Falmouth will be working with Cornwall’s Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens to identify experiential game-based methods of engaging new visitors to the site.
Suzhou city’s multiple garden attractions date from the ancient Ming and Qing dynasties, with Humble Adventurer’s Garden, Net Master’s Garden and Lion Grove Garden among the most popular sites.
The cross-border collaboration aims to see both institutions creating their first AR exhibitions in the late summer/early Autumn, with each university taking its own approach to the challenge of collaboration, and regularly comparing notes to see what they can learn from one another.
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The partnership could set the ground for more innovative technology solutions for tourist sites in both countries, using the shared data and prototypes created.
The project comes at a time when UK and Chinese videogame sectors are under increasing pressure to diversify their audiences and applications.
With location-based games like Pokémon Go and Animal Crossing reaching millions around the globe, games companies are currently developing a multitude of AR tools and experiences to respond to increasing consumer demand.
Dr. Doug Brown, Falmouth University’s Principal Investigator and Director of the Games Academy says AR experiences will increasingly find their way into our daily lives – just as QR codes, Bluetooth and face recognition technology have via our smartphones in recent years.
Dr. Doug Brown said: "We’re delighted to be working with Tongji University on this exciting new initiative.
"With extensive experience in game development, immersive technology business assistance and app design, our teams’ research is producing new knowledge that will help other small gardens leverage the engagement potential of AR.
"More consumers than ever before have a smartphone, so it makes sense to design AR applications that take advantage of the wide variety of smartphone owners and create experiences that can bring multi-generational family members together.
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