The Virtual Revival of the City of Saarlouis via a Multimodal Augmented/Mixed Reality Touristic HoloLens App.

In this paper, we present our framework for Augmented and Mixed Reality touristic applications, which we are currently developing with the city of Saarlouis (Germany). It aims to provide tourists and visitors with a new augmented experience to discover the unique history of the city. Whereas most Augmented and Mixed Reality touristic applications are designed for a single user without any human city guide, our app, called SaAR-Louis, offers a more immersive touristic experience as it displays holographic information via Augmented and Mixed Reality on HoloLens/iPad in addition to the explanations of the tour guide. Moreover, thanks to geolocation and 3D scanning of the surroundings, our application provides tourists with the unique experience of discovering 3D reconstructed ancient/old buildings that no longer exist and offers multimodal interaction with a 3D Avatar that gives insights about the historic buildings. In the following, we will explain the app architecture, the pipeline of creating the 3D virtual revival of the city of Saarlouis, and the challenges behind designing, conceiving, implementing, and deploying the SaAR-Louis app.