Thanks to the work of Human-Computer Interaction graduate student Theodore Johnson, those who visit Oswego’s Fort Ontario State Historic Site will soon have the opportunity to step through a visual remaking of the past, thanks to a new augmented reality tour.
In the spring semester, a number of students in professor Damian Schofield’s hypermedia and multimedia class undertook projects in the local community as part of the “Mapping Oswego” project. Students created augmented reality experiences to provide multimedia experiences showcasing local Oswego history.
With the aid of an Impact Scholars program grant, Johnson completed the project with the help of the fort’s site manager, Paul Lear, as well as faculty mentor Schofield.
“Paul provided a wealth of historical knowledge and gave Theo access to archives of photographs and historical data about the fort,” Schofield said.
The augmented reality tour was created on an app called Artivive. Visitors to the fort can now pick up a flipbook upon arrival, and cart it along as they tour the fort, visiting as many locations and buildings as they desire.
“The augmented reality application uses technology similar to the popular game Pokémon Go,” Schofield said. “Visitors to the fort download an app, point their phone at an object or flipbook image, and then see the history appear before their eyes.”
Johnson’s app creation will then bring up a slideshow of what the location looked like throughout the years, allowing curious tourists to analyze the fort’s appearance and structural foundations throughout time, including photos from back in the mid-to-late 19th century all the way to present day.
Fort Ontario’s primary fortification was constructed by the British in 1755 in order to improve defenses already in place across the river at Fort Oswego. At that time, the fort’s name was the “Fort of the Six Nations,” but fortifications were destroyed by French forces during the Battle of Fort Oswego in 1756 and later rebuilt by the British in 1759. The fort was also subject to reconstruction after the American Revolution and the War of 1812.
During World War II, Fort Ontario was home to almost 1,000 refugees, most of them Jewish, from the summer of 1944 through the winter of 1946. The Emergency Refugee Shelter and Safe Haven museum located at the fort is noted as the only nationally-recognized effort to shelter Jewish Holocaust refugees during the war.
After the conclusion of the war, the refugees were kept in internment camps because of issues and disputes regarding American citizenship. In January of 1946, the decision was made to allow the refugees to become U.S. citizens, and by the following month, all 982 refugees were allowed to leave Fort Ontario.
Johnson graduated from Oswego with his bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in cognitive science. He says future collaboration and user testing will allow for any needed changes to be made to the tour.
“I very much enjoyed working with Paul and Damian over the summer with this project. Augmented reality is a booming technology and is now being implemented in historical tourists sites,” Johnson said. “A lot of the top end museums have virtual reality and augmented reality displays for their visitors. Having this addition will very much peak interest in tourists and locals as it’s a more immersive experience and will engage the visitors in a more enjoyable visiting experience overall.”
Johnson will pursue publishing the results of the augmented reality tour project, with the hopes that museums and other historical sites will begin to recognize the benefits of implementing augmented reality technology to further educate interested visitors.
Photo by Nicole Hube | The Oswegonian
