Exploiting ICT to Create Smart Visit Experiences at Cultural Heritage Sites

Information and communication technologies have a great potential to increase awareness and appreciation of cultural heritage. In the last decade, at the Computer Science Department of the University of Bari (Italy), we have been working to the design, development and evaluation of software systems supporting people during their visits to historical sites and museums, with the goal of improving the overall user experience. In particular, we focused on pervasive games to offer an engaging way to experience the cultural heritage site. This article, after briefly describing some games that we developed, illustrates some of our new recent approaches. Specifically, we are investigating possible use of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology, as well as Mixed Reality, in order to ensure a more engaging visit experience and to increase the appropriation of CH contents by visitors.