Nowadays, at almost every conference on cultural heritage the topic of adding digital information to artefacts (paintings, sculptures, curtains, tapestry) is discussed. Alongside of that development, many cities now have AR city or landscape tours to inform the public about their history. These developments stem from the late nineteen-nineties: ‘Application of IT in museum and cultural heritage institutions was first discussed in the International Conferences on Hypermedia and Interactivity in Museums (ICHIM) which started in 1991. Then in 1997, the annual conference of Museums and the Web was established which was dedicated for this purpose.’1 Historical cultural heritage sites are supplemented with original floor plans, pictures, and ‘artist’ impressions when there are no other images available. In the AR Lab we work on projects in the cultural sector, mostly museums, but not restricted to that, to enhance the public’s interest in the artworks that are, or sometimes, are not, on show. We strongly believe that by enabling the public to interact, in one way or another, with the artworks, the appreciation for these artworks will grow and intensify2. Maybe these projects even contribute to a larger cultural awareness3. In The Netherlands, we have completed several projects for both the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam as well Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, not to mention the work we did for Museum Escher in the Palace in The Hague, Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht and the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo. And there is more to come. In this article we want to emphasize the benefits of AR in the field of cultural heritage and we will also consider some of the benefits of using AR in cultural tourism.
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