Designing Mobile Application to Motivate Young People to Visit Cultural Heritage Sites

Authors: Yuko Hiramatsu, Fumihiro Sato, Atsushi Ito, Hiroyuki Hatano, Mie Sato, Yu Watanabe, Akira Sasaki

Abstract:

This paper presents a mobile phone application developed for sightseeing in Nikko, one of the cultural world heritages in Japan, using the BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) beacon. Based on our pre-research, we decided to design our application for young people who walk around the area actively, but know little about the tradition and culture of Nikko. One solution is to construct many information boards to explain; however, it is difficult to construct new guide plates in cultural world heritage sites. The smartphone is a good solution to send such information to such visitors. This application was designed using a combination of the smartphone and beacons, set in the area, so that when a tourist passes near a beacon, the application displays information about the area including a map, historical or cultural information about the temples and shrines, and local shops nearby as well as a bus timetable. It is useful for foreigners, too. In addition, we developed quizzes relating to the culture and tradition of Nikko to provide information based on the Zeigarnik effect, a psychological effect. According to the results of our trials, tourists positively evaluated the basic information and young people who used the quiz function were able to learn the historical and cultural points. This application helped young visitors at Nikko to understand the cultural elements of the site. In addition, this application has a function to send notifications. This function is designed to provide information about the local community such as shops, local transportation companies and information office. The application hopes to also encourage people living in the area, and such cooperation from the local people will make this application vivid and inspire young visitors to feel that the cultural heritage site is still alive today. This is a gateway for young people to learn about a traditional place and understand the gravity of preserving such areas.

Keywords: BLE beacon, smartphone application, Zeigarnik effect, world heritage site, school trip.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1339650

References:

[1] Okinawa General Bureau, Cabinet Office, The world heritage sites in Japan, (Online). Available from: http://www.ogb.go.jp/sinkou/shinki/H24chousa2/H24chosa2-1-2.pdf, accessed 5 Oct,2016.
[2] Y. Hiramatsu, A Ito, A Study of Sightseeing Support System Using ICT Based on Attitude Surveys of Visitors to Nikko, The Annual of Institute of Economic Research Chuo University, No. 46 2015.pp497-530.
[3] Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, The Survey of Information Communication Media and Behavior Information: Main Contents 2014, pp3 (Online). Available from: http://www.soumu.go.jp/main_content/000357568.pdf, (in Japanese), accessed 19 Oct 2016.
[4] UNESCO, Shrines and Temples of Nikko, (Online). Available from: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/913, accessed 13, Oct, 2016.
[5] Y. Kurata, M. Aoki, and H. Ai., Outline of the Local Application Research in Japan (in Japanese). Society of Tourism Informatics, Kanazawa, pp. 68–69, 2015.
[6] IPSJ Magazine Vol.53 No.11, A Special Number Information Tourism, Information Processing Society of Japan, 2012.
[7] Tag Cloud, Technologies lead to Adaptability & lifelong engagement with culture throughout the CLOUD project, (Online). Available from: http://www.tagcloudproject.eu, accessed 13, Oct, 2016.
[8] N. Schiffman, S. Greist-Bousquet The effect of task interruption and closure on perceived duration, Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, pp9-11,1992.
[9] P.L. Pearce, P.F. Stringer, Psychology and tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, pp136-154 ,1991.
[10] J.D. Fridgen, Environmental psychology and tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, pp19-39 ,1984.
[11] W.E. Van Raaij, Consumer Research on tourism: Mental and behavioral consructs. Annals of Tourism Research, pp1-9,1986.
[12] T. Sasaki, Kankoo-Ryoko no Sinrigaku (in Japanese), Kitaoji Shobo, pp38, 2007.
[13] Y. Hiramatsu, A. Ito, F. Sato, The Site-specific Learning Model on Mobile Phones Using Zeigarnik Effect - Designing Collaboration Tool for Outdoor Studying, Poster Presentation at HCII (International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction), 2013, Part II, Las Vegas, NV.
[14] Y. Hiramatsu, A. Ito, M. Fujii, F. Sato, Development of the Learning System for Outdoor Study Using Zeigarnik Effect, HCII 2014, 127-137, (table of contents Part 2), 2014, Greece.
[15] Y. Hiramatsu, A. Ito, F. Sato, H. Hatano, M. Sato, Y. Watanabe, A. Sasaki, A New Model for Providing Tourism Information for Traditional Cultural Sites through ICT, ICSIT 2016, Florida, pp. 76-81.
[16] H. Ishizuka, D.Kamisaka, M. Kurokawa, T. Watanabe, S. Muramatsu, C.Ono, A Fundamental Study on a Indoor localization method using BLE signals and PDR for a smart phone - Sharing results of experiments in Open Beacon Field Trial, 2014, MBL-71(21), pp1-6.
[17] F. Palumbo, P. Barsocchi, St. Chessa, J. C. Augusto, A stigmergic approach to indoor localization using Bluetooth Low Energy beacons, Advanced Video and Signal Based Surveillance (AVSS), 2015, pp25-28 Aug. 2015.
[18] P. Kriz, F. Maley, T. Kozel, Improving Indoor Localization Using Bluetooth Low Energy Beacons, Mobile Information Systems, Volume 2016 (2016), Article ID 2083094, pp11.
[19] Department of Industrial Heritage, Cabinet Secretariat, Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal mining, (Online). Available　from: http://www.japansmeijiindustrialrevolution.com/en/, accessed 13, Oct, 2016.