pert heritage

History in your hands: The development of location-based applications for the

public

Tom Pert

Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales

Comisiwn Brenhinol Henebion CymruRoyal Commission on the Ancient and Historical

Monuments of Wales

The national body of research and record for the historic environment of Wales

Connected Spaces

• How can we combine information and multi-media and make it available in formats readily usable by the public?

• Focus on the use of mobile devices.

Changing technologies

• Mobile platforms, functionality and performance are constantly developing

• These changes in technology have been mirrored by the development of mobile applications by the Royal Commission

E-Lwybr Rhuthun - Ruthin E-Trail

2005-06: The Ruthin e-trail

• Deliver heritage information in new and innovative way to a wider audience

• Introduce Welsh Baccalaureate students to the fundamentals of GIS, GPS and mobile technology

• Enable students to develop measurable key skills which will count towards their attainment of the Welsh Baccalaureate

• Develop our understanding of how to deliver Coflein information to mobile devices

Aims:

E-Lwybr Rhuthun - Ruthin E-Trail

Compact Flash GPS Receiver

HP IPAQ PDA

ESRI ArcPad Mobile GIS

AquaPac Waterproof bag

Basic Equipment

E-Lwybr Rhuthun - Ruthin E-Trail

Tap

Tap on any of the highlighted buildings to access information and images from the Denbighshire Record Office and RCAHMW’s COFLEIN web service.

Using the e-trail

E-Lwybr Rhuthun - Ruthin E-Trail

E-Lwybr Rhuthun - Ruthin E-Trail

E-Lwybr Rhuthun - Ruthin E-Trail

Students visiting the Record Office

E-Lwybr Rhuthun - Ruthin E-Trail

Education

E-Lwybr Rhuthun - Ruthin E-Trail

Students at Ysgol Brynhyfryd, Ruthin, creating their own E-Trails.

Welsh Baccalaureate

2007-08: Blaenavon town e-trail

Changing Hardware

Changing Software

The Blaenavon Town e-trail

Blaenavon World Heritage Centre

14 HP iPAQ Travel Companions

www.mscapers.com

Education – Coleg Gwent IT students

Education – Coleg Gwent IT students

Sensor Range Interaction mode

RFID 1cm Touch

2D barcodes 10cm Focus

Infrared 5m Point

RF pingers 50m Approach

Transition from outdoor to indoor space with use of spatial triggers other than GPS.

Future development

Casgliad y Bobl / The People's Collection represents an important One Wales commitment to develop an innovative approach to collect, interpret, distribute and discuss Wales' cultural heritage in an online environment. A world class bilingual online resource which extends an understanding of our culture and heritage both within Wales and beyond.

2009-10: Casgliad y Bobl / The People’s Collection

An online multimedia platform providing bilingual content created by Welsh museums, archives and libraries and user-generated content on Welsh cultural heritage.

Who is providing content?

Initial content will be provided by:

• National Library of Wales

• National Museum Wales

• Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales

• Culturenet Cymru

• National Grid for Learning Cymru

• BBC Wales

• Herian

GIS functionality

All content will be tagged spatially, temporally and thematically, enabling it to be displayed on-line within a time-enabled mapping interface.

The GIS interface will allow the user to search in a number of ways:• Using a time-dependent display – moving a slider along a bar would result in

data and base-mapping being shown or hidden according to the period selected

• A geographical display allowing collections to be searched by spatial location• A thematic display of items tagged into thematic groups.• A free text search.

Delivery to mobile phones

• Hardware that virtually everyone has access to

• A platform with a variety of delivery options: audio, SMS, internet

• People’s Collection will develop a pan-Wales system for delivery of heritage information to mobile phones

Mobile delivery

Different levels of mobile interface will be developed to suit different levels of phone sophistication and network availability, thereby maximizing potential audience.

Source: Ofcom / GSM Association / Europa Technologies; Q1 2008 Note: Map shows the number of 2G operators with at least 75% area coverage; not directly comparable to that published in the 2007 report.

2G mobile phone network

3G mobile phone network

Source: Ofcom / GSM Association / Europa Technologies; Q1 2008 Note: Map shows the number of 3G operators with at least 75% area coverage; not directly comparable to that published in the 2007 report.

Mobile phone development

• Latest generation iPhone, G1, Blackberry Storm, HTC Magic

• Seamless use of 2G, 3G and Wi-Fi • Downloadable Applications• GPS• Open operating system: Android

User-generated contentContent uploaded by users will eventually form the majority of content available through the site. Users will be able to choose whether to make this material visible to all users, specific user groups or just add it to their private scrapbook.