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Mixed Reality Scenic Live Streaming for Cultural Heritage: Visual Interactions in a Historic Landscape

Zeyu Huang, Zuyu Xu, Yuanhao Zhang, Chengzhong Liu, Yanwei Zhao, Chuhan Shi, Jason Chen Zhao, Xiaojuan Ma

TL;DR

The paper identifies a gap in Scenic Live Streams (SLS) where real-time sites remain passive. It introduces Mixed Reality Scenic Live Streams (MRSLS) to overlay interactive, site-aligned MR content on live footage, and demonstrates a prototype at the West Lake UNESCO site. Through formative interviews, iterative design studies, and a mixed-methods evaluation (N=43 vs N=36), the work shows that MRSLS enhances place connection, participatory social experience, and cultural aesthetics compared with plain SLS. The study articulates a triadic framework of Cultural, Participatory, and Authentic affordances, and discusses design implications, limitations, and future directions for digital placemaking and dynamic MR experiences at cultural heritage sites.

Abstract

Scenic Live Streams (SLS), capturing real-world scenic sites from fixed cameras without streamers, have gained increasing popularity recently. They afford unique real-time lenses into remote sites for viewers' synchronous and collective engagement. Foregrounding its lack of dynamism and interactivity, we aim to maximize the potential of SLS by making it interactive. Namely MRSLS, we overlaid plain SLS with interactive Mixed Reality content that matches the site's geographical structures and local cultural backgrounds. We further highlight the substantial benefit of MRSLS to cultural heritage site interactions, and we demonstrate this design proposal with an MRSLS prototype at a UNESCO-listed heritage site in China. The design process includes an interview (N=6) to pinpoint local scenery and culture, as well as two iterative design studies (N=15, 14). A mixed-methods, between-subjects study (N=43, 37) shows that MRSLS affords immersive scenery appreciation, effective cultural imprints, and vivid shared experience. With its balance between cultural, participatory, and authentic attributes, we appeal for more HCI attention to (MR)SLS as an under-explored design space.

Mixed Reality Scenic Live Streaming for Cultural Heritage: Visual Interactions in a Historic Landscape

TL;DR

The paper identifies a gap in Scenic Live Streams (SLS) where real-time sites remain passive. It introduces Mixed Reality Scenic Live Streams (MRSLS) to overlay interactive, site-aligned MR content on live footage, and demonstrates a prototype at the West Lake UNESCO site. Through formative interviews, iterative design studies, and a mixed-methods evaluation (N=43 vs N=36), the work shows that MRSLS enhances place connection, participatory social experience, and cultural aesthetics compared with plain SLS. The study articulates a triadic framework of Cultural, Participatory, and Authentic affordances, and discusses design implications, limitations, and future directions for digital placemaking and dynamic MR experiences at cultural heritage sites.

Abstract

Scenic Live Streams (SLS), capturing real-world scenic sites from fixed cameras without streamers, have gained increasing popularity recently. They afford unique real-time lenses into remote sites for viewers' synchronous and collective engagement. Foregrounding its lack of dynamism and interactivity, we aim to maximize the potential of SLS by making it interactive. Namely MRSLS, we overlaid plain SLS with interactive Mixed Reality content that matches the site's geographical structures and local cultural backgrounds. We further highlight the substantial benefit of MRSLS to cultural heritage site interactions, and we demonstrate this design proposal with an MRSLS prototype at a UNESCO-listed heritage site in China. The design process includes an interview (N=6) to pinpoint local scenery and culture, as well as two iterative design studies (N=15, 14). A mixed-methods, between-subjects study (N=43, 37) shows that MRSLS affords immersive scenery appreciation, effective cultural imprints, and vivid shared experience. With its balance between cultural, participatory, and authentic attributes, we appeal for more HCI attention to (MR)SLS as an under-explored design space.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 30 sections, 6 figures, 4 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. XR for Cultural Heritage Sites
  4. Scenic Live Streams as a Design Space
  5. Design
  6. Choosing Interactive MR Content
  7. Feature Design and Iteration Protocol
  8. Initial Design
  9. Iterative Design Studies
  10. MRSLS Prototype
  11. Camera View
  12. Lotus Spreading
  13. Chinese Verse Game "Fei Hua Ling"
  14. Fish Feeding
  15. Fireworks and Oil-Paper Umbrella with Stories
  16. ...and 15 more sections

Figures (6)

  • Figure 1: Our design process for an MRSLS at cultural heritage sites.
  • Figure 2: The initial overlooking view (left) is preferred by plain SLS like http://skylinewebcams.com and https://livechina.cctv.com. The new first-person view (right) better fits interactive MRSLS.
  • Figure 3: The MRSLS design. Viewers can actively engage in interactions with the scene. The features aim to recreate in-person collective activities related to local cultures.
  • Figure 4: The software architecture of our MRSLS prototype.
  • Figure 5: Questionnaire responses on MR design
  • ...and 1 more figures