Augmented Reality for Sculpture Stability Analysis and Conservation

Abstract

Augmented reality (AR) technology has provided museum visitors with more immersive experiences, but it has yet to reach its full potential for the conservators and historians who craft the exhibits and protect their cultural heritage. In this paper, we propose ConservatAR, an ongoing project that assists sculpture conservation in AR with physical simulation and data visualization. ConservatAR employs two techniques: a static analysis to predict tipping vulnerabilities for homogeneous sculptures, as well as a dynamic analysis for tipping detection and impact visualization of cracked and non-homogeneous sculptures during a user-controlled collapse. Formative user studies with conservators from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston evaluate the usability and efficacy of our techniques, providing valuable insight on how AR can be best applied to art conservation.