Seeing the Past with Computers: Experiments with Augmented Reality and Computer Vision for History (Digital Humanities) - Hardcover

Kevin Kee (author) & Timothy J Compeau (author)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0472131117 ISBN 13: 9780472131112

Publisher: University of Michigan Press, 2019

Synopsis

Recent developments in computer technology are providing historians with new ways to see—and seek to hear, touch, or smell—traces of the past. Place-based augmented reality applications are an increasingly common feature at heritage sites and museums, allowing historians to create immersive, multifaceted learning experiences. Now that computer vision can be directed at the past, research involving thousands of images can recreate lost or destroyed objects or environments, and discern patterns in vast datasets that could not be perceived by the naked eye. Seeing the Past with Computers is a collection of twelve thought-pieces on the current and potential uses of augmented reality and computer vision in historical research, teaching, and presentation. The experts gathered here reflect upon their experiences working with new technologies, share their ideas for best practices, and assess the implications of—and imagine future possibilities for—new methods of historical study. Among the experimental topics they explore are the use of augmented reality that empowers students to challenge the presentation of historical material in their textbooks; the application of seeing computers to unlock unusual cultural knowledge, such as the secrets of vaudevillian stage magic; hacking facial recognition technology to reveal victims of racism in a century-old Australian archive; and rebuilding the soundscape of an Iron Age village with aural augmented reality. This volume is a valuable resource for scholars and students of history and the digital humanities more broadly. It will inspire them to apply innovative methods to open new paths for conducting and sharing their own research.

About this title

About the Author

Kevin Kee is Dean of Arts and Professor of History at the University of Ottawa. Timothy Compeau is Assistant Professor of History at Huron University College at Western University.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Michigan Press
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0472131117
• ISBN 13: 9780472131112
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256