Visit via Histopad to the Conciergerie, heritage site of the network of National Monument Centers
All VISTA AR partners gathered in Paris were able to visit the historic site of La Conciergerie, a building that is part of the network of National Monument Centers.
The objective was to discover together the product “Histopad” which offers a site visit in augmented reality. The Histopad tool was developed in partnership with the National Monuments Centers and Histovery, which presents itself as an “enhanced visit operator”.
The Histopad solution has already been deployed at prestigious heritage sites: Chambord Castle, Blois Castle, William the Conqueror’s Castle in Falaises, and the Popes’ Palace in Avignon.
We had the pleasure of being welcomed by the Conciergerie Manager, Mr Lyazid Benhami, who also works at the Arc de Triomphe. He gave us an introduction to this mediation tool and showed us to the method used for its deployment.
It was interesting for VISTA AR to see the finished product of the Histopad application. It is an example of high quality augmented reality. However, the interaction of the visitor with this AR is aimed at a general public without necessarily allowing for different levels of interaction. With VISTA AR, we can add to the quality of the experience by providing VI garnered from a close study of the visitors to the sites.
As regards the business model, it was easy to see that we do not have the same imperatives given that Histovery addresses heritage sites with high visitor numbers whereas VISTA AR is interested in sites with lower numbers.
The Histopad is a complete solution for which the only intervention needed by the sites is in terms of the validation of historical contents. VISTA AR wants to create devices with and for the sites and wants to thus involve the heritage sites in the project.
However, an appointment has been made with the manager to present the work that continues between the Center of Monuments of France and companies such as Histovery to develop new solutions in the context of business incubators. This type of product management could indeed be considered in the period post-VISTA-AR.