Mummy’s Curse Exhibition

Background: As part of the BBC’s interactive storytelling exhibition about Egypt I produced an ‘augmented reality’ installation that gave visitors a virtual ‘hands on’ experience of a precious 3,000 year old Egyptian jar belonging to an archeology museum.

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Canopic jars were used by the Egyptians for holding the viscera of mummified corpses.

Whilst most of these jars are empty today medical scans revealed this jar contained ancient intestines.

Tactile interactivity: The 3D ‘augmented reality‘ replica of the Canopic jar allowed visitors to ‘examine’ something they couldn’t normally touch, and to ’see’ what the naked eye can’t see.

Visitors see themselves on a monitor which shows them holding the virtual jar on top of the pattern card. Visitors can move the card to examine the jar from all angles and inspect the hieroglyphics up close.

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A narrative told the story of the jar and revealed the ancient intestines believed to be inside.

Challenges: This was one of the first times that AR has been tested outside of research labs. A significant challenge was to push technology to create believability through life-like rendering of the jar in real time.

User experience: I carried out heuristic user-evaluation of the installation to understand how children behave with AR - away from a controlled classroom environment. This learning suggested new interaction models for future AR projects.