Page 231 - Kaleidoscope Academic Conference Proceedings 2020

Session 5: Augmented reality and tourism
S5.1 An immersive mobile application for improved learning and virtual tour experience: A nature
reserve perspective
Carmenita Oersen, Ruchen Wyngaard and Lebogang Nkabinde, University of the Western Cape,
South Africa

The purpose of this study was to develop an immersive virtual reality application for the University
of Western Cape’s nature reserve in South Africa. For this focus on a nature reserve project, the
project team was requested to build a self-guided tour capable of achieving knowledge transfer,
and which has aesthetic pleasure. The study was informed by the peculiar challenge of the nature
reserve and existing literature to identify gaps that may occur in the body of knowledge. The scrum
project methodology was used to manage the life cycle of the project. The application was
successfully built within the given time frame and the client’s feedback was overwhelmingly
positive.

S5.2 Self-guided virtual tour using augmented reality
Aphile Kondlo, Andre Henney, Antoine Bagula, Olasupo Ajayi and Laurenda Van Breda,
University of the Western Cape, South Africa

The Cape Flats Nature Reserve, situated in the Western Cape, South Africa provides refuge to
over 200 plant species, many endemic to the Western Cape. As part of the reserve's recreational
activities, scheduled guided tours are offered to the public. The tours focus on the ecological
importance and educational aspect of the reserve. A complete tour usually takes more than an hour.
Due to the lack of trained tour guides and its strenuous nature, tours are only offered once daily.
This has been identified as a challenge by the management of the nature reserve. In this paper a
solution to the challenge using an augmented reality mobile application is proposed. The
application allows visitors to experience the nature reserve in their own time without a guide.
Augmented reality markers are placed at points of interest around the reserve. These in conjunction
with the mobile application provide information about plants thereby mimicking actual tour
guides. Outlines for the design and development of this self-guided tour application and the results
of user acceptance and unit tests are provided in this paper.

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