Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ARCHES (Accessible Resources for Cultural Heritage EcoSystems)

Teaser

ARCHES ‘Accessible Resources for Cultural Heritage EcoSystems’ aims to create more inclusive cultural environments particularly for people with differences and difficulties associated with perception, memory, cognition and communication. It will achieve this through a...

Summary

ARCHES ‘Accessible Resources for Cultural Heritage EcoSystems’ aims to create more inclusive cultural environments particularly for people with differences and difficulties associated with perception, memory, cognition and communication. It will achieve this through a participatory research methodology and the development of innovative applications, functionalities and experiences based on the redevelopment and reuse of digital resources.
Our interdisciplinary consortium – involving academia, SMEs, research centres and six museums – will focus on ensuring widespread communication and exploitation, stimulating cross-border collaboration, generating an innovative ecosystem to address a challenge common across Europe.

Work performed

ARCHES is structured around 8 work packages. Their key aspects are summarised below:
In the context of WP1 ‘Project management and coordination’, the members of the boards and managers were officially appointed; internal communication mechanisms were implemented; two complementary content repositories are being used; and a corporate identity was designed based on the logo. In addition, two face-to-face meetings were organised together with monthly videoconferences. 16 deliverables were submitted among others.
WP2 ‘Working with participatory research groups’ is devoted to social research. The objective of this WP is to establish a series of participatory research groups, which include people with differences and difficulties associated with perception, memory, cognition and communication, who can work with the cultural heritage (CH) sites and the developers of software platforms, applications for handheld devices and multisensory activities. We started with the London Exploration Group and the same methodology is being applied in Spain and Austria.
WP3 ‘Development of an accessible software platform’ focuses on the design, development, testing and deployment of a software platform where CH assets are accessible for people with disabilities. It will take advantage of some functionalities to facilitate the understanding of the artworks by all types of audiences. At this moment, the system architecture and preliminary design of the graphical interface are ready. Likewise, the consortium has been working on innovative technologies to enable the display of sign language content presented by a 3D avatar. This includes definition of signs and animation, as well as gaining feedback on the translated content from the deaf community.
WP4 ‘Development of applications for handheld devices’ is aimed to develop applications for smartphones and tablets that can be used by our target audiences to make museums and CH sites more accessible and provide new experiences. Taking advantage of the capabilities of Augmented Reality technologies, together with functionalities suggested by the London Exploration Group, we are working on two different applications: Our Story and the ARCHES app. Besides these two applications, serious games are being design in close collaboration with the participatory research groups.
WP5 ‘On-site multisensory activities’ has a main goal: to complement the screen-based work, especially including the tactile sense. For this we are working on the design of reliefs and the development of a software tool for creating reliefs. In particular, two reliefs for the V&A Museum and for The Wallace Collection were designed. The original pieces were chosen by the London Exploration Group: the table fountain ‘The Triumph of Amphitrite’ and the painting ‘Laughing Cavalier’. Additionally, a tactile audio guide is being implemented.
WP6 ‘System validation and pilot exercises’ has a main objectives: Ensuring a high degree of usability and perceived value added for the target audience through validation of hypothesis and expert input. To generate real added value in the form of a higher degree of accessibility for the participatory research groups, we validate our development over various stages throughout the project. We work together with the target communities through three pilot exercises. They are providing valuable feedback and ensuring that the project keeps track of the goal and develops highly usable and valuable platforms and applications.
A trilingual webpage with introduction videos for each language is online (www.arches-project.eu), being one of the first activities under WP7 ‘Communication and exploitation’. We have currently 411 followers in the sum of all social networks, mainly Twitter and Facebook. We have compiled a list of conferences and journals of interest for the consortium with the relevant deadlines, created a shared calendar of events, and are also working on the list of museu

Final results

Different profiles are found within the participatory research groups since we are working with people with differences and difficulties associated with perception, memory, cognition and communication. Moreover, each location has its own culture, traditions, habits and idiosyncrasy. The experience with the London Exploration Group is being very positive and they are proposing functionalities for the technical developments as well as new activities. However, we expect other groups to make their own suggestions and, perhaps, behave in a different way. This will definitely enrich the research and the outcomes of the project. It will also contribute to the achievement of a higher impact on the stakeholders.
The consortium is addressing technical challenges in different areas: the description with the sign language avatar of the table fountain exhibited at the V&A Museum is a good example. It was the first time for the software system SiMAX to translate a text into British Sign Language (BSL). Particular attention was devoted to the comprehensibility of the translation concerning the arrangement of signs in the signing space as well as on the mouthing. The translation received a lot of appreciation for its pleasant appearance and the smoothness of its movements. It was stated that grammatical facial expressions and the intensity of the body movement could still be improved. All in all, the results show that after a short settling-in period the deaf persons could accept the avatar and do think that the implemented translation is useful for them.
ARCHES partners are working to facilitate and speed up the generation of reliefs through a single program which shall incorporate all the required functionalities. A novel rapid prototyping approach that allows fast and erasable physical printing of the relief was further developed during this first phase. Additionally, a tactile audio guide is under development: Sounds were included, as well as a tutorial for the usage of the guide. Moreover, the projector can be used to display the original colour or colour-enhanced parts of the piece as an additional input for people that retain a rest of sight.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.arches-project.eu.