UCF digital media professor Maria Harrington, Ph.D. will present her research project — the AR Perpetual Garden App — at the 2019 Museum and Web Conference in Boston, Massachusetts. The annual conference features advanced research on cultural, natural and scientific heritage by leading professionals from around the world. Attendees come from 302 institutions — including Harvard, MIT, Princeton and Yale — and 28 different countries.
The AR Perpetual Garden App, which launched last year, allows users to visualize and create virtual, scientifically-accurate Appalachian gardens. Made through a partnership with the environmental research center at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the MultiMediaTechnology program of the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences in Austria, the smartphone app was originally designed for visitors of Carnegie’s Powdermill Nature Reserve but has been gaining momentum as an educational tool that can be used anywhere. Harrington worked with two UCF alumni on the app — Zack Bledsoe ‘18 and Chris Jones ‘18 — as well as John Wenzel (director of the Powdermill Nature Reserve) and Markus Tatzgern, a professor from the Salzburg University of Applied Services.
Harrington’s presentation “Virtual Dioramas Inside and Outside Museums with the AR Perpetual Garden App” will demonstrate the app’s uses on Friday, April 5, 2019. The app is free to download on the Apple or Google Play store.
Editor’s note, March 15
Read more about Maria Harrington’s AR Perpetual Garden App in the New York Times: Meeting Old Masters, Rowing With Vikings — in Augmented Reality