Augmented Environments Lab

The “Voices of Oakland” uses Augmented Reality (AR) technology to introduce visitors to the history and architecture of Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta’s oldest cemetery. Wearing headphones and carrying a portable computer and tracking devices, visitors walk among the graves and listen to the voices of various historical figures. Visitors can tailor the experience to suit their interests through a hand-held interface. The Voices of Oakland is a prototype created using DART (the Designer’s Augmented Reality Toolkit) and evaluated using the “Wizard of Oz” approach with volunteer participants.The Voices of Oakland was conceived and implemented in the GVU Center at the Georgia Institute of Technology, with audio production assistance from the Digital Arts Entertainment Lab (DAEL) at Georgia State University.

Dr. James Nissen James Nissen’s gravestone is too old and worn by the elements to be legible. He was the first direct interment at Oakland, in the year 1850. Carrie Berry Crumley Carrie Berry was just a little girl, 10 years old, when the general Sherman arrived in Atlanta. Yet, despite her tender years, she kept a diary of her experiences. Franklin Miller Garrett Thoughout the twentieth century, Franklin Miller Garrett’s life and the history of Atlanta were interconnected. He was the official historian of the city.
In this prototype of The Voices of Oakland, the experience is controlled from a second portable computer communicating with the visitors’ computer over a wireless network. This second computer acts as a kind of “Wizard of Oz” interface, allowing the tour guide to monitor which buttons the visitors have pressed on their hand-held and to decide what audio segment should be delivered next. In the final version of the experience, the visitors’ position will also be tracked using a GPS (Global Positioning System) device, allowing the experience to work without a human “wizard.”The visitors walk through the cemetery and approach graves pointed out by the narrator, or any other grave they find interesting. In our current prototype, they can use the hand-held device to select audio segments concerning: the life of the figure buried there, the historical context, or the art and architecture of the cemetery.

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