Augmented reality systems in the cultural heritage domains: A systematic review

The recent developments of Augmented Reality (AR) have revolutionised various industries, including the heritage industry. Cultural organisations are embracing AR applications to enhance the experience of their heritage assets. The heritage industries widely use this state-of-the-art technology to create the missing sparks from their static environment. However, there are very limited review studies that have focussed on investigating factors such as characteristics of AR, classifications of cultural heritage (CH), use-cases, technologies, techniques, interfaces, platforms and the specific challenges faced in this context. This study aims to bridge this gap by conducting a systematic review of AR applications in the context of cultural heritage, referred to as AR-CH. A total of forty-five works published between the years 2013–2023 in the top 7 most popular indexed databases are reviewed. The systematic review has been conducted using the Kitchenham method, and the analysis of the findings was carried out using the PRISMA method. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the current state of AR-CH systems and outlines the research directions that require more investigation.