OpenAR

A toolkit of trainings, templates, and tutorials for the digital humanities.

Open Source Augmented Reality

OpenAR is a free, open source resource for building lightweight browser-based augmented reality experiences. Our team is developing an accessible toolkit of trainings, templates, and tutorials for scholars who use digital technologies to study the humanities. OpenAR enables users with limited coding knowledge to create engaging, interactive AR experiences.

About the Project

OpenAR: A Toolkit of Trainings, Templates, and Tutorials for the Digital Humanities is a groundbreaking project designed to provide accessible, open source resources for creating web-based augmented reality (AR) experiences. Leveraging the free, browser-based AR.js library, the project aims to remove financial and technical barriers that have historically prevented humanities scholars, educators, and public practitioners from utilizing AR in their work. By offering customizable AR templates and comprehensive tutorials, OpenAR enables users with limited coding knowledge to create engaging, interactive AR experiences for research, teaching, and public projects. These tools will empower digital humanities practitioners to explore new ways of interacting with physical spaces, historical narratives, and cultural objects, without the need for proprietary software or app-based platforms.

The project will develop, test, and refine a suite of AR templates, accompanied by tutorials, similar in kind to those offered by Programming Historian. The project will also offer specialized training modules and public workshops, in partnership with the DWELL Lab at URI, to ensure broad accessibility and adoption across the digital humanities community. All resources will be freely available online, supporting equitable access to cutting-edge digital tools for AR development. By eliminating cost barriers and making AR easier to implement, OpenAR seeks to democratize the use of spatial computing technologies, fostering innovative public engagement, site-based storytelling, and activist projects across the humanities.

Development Team

Madison Jones (Founder, PI): Dr. Jones is an assistant professor with a dual appointment in the Departments of Professional & Public Writing and Natural Resources Science at the University of Rhode Island, where here is a Senior Fellow at the Coastal Institute, coordinates the Science Writing & Rhetoric graduate certificate, and directs the DWELL Lab. His research and teaching are situated within the Rhetoric of Science and Technology (RST).

Jeremiah Dyehouse (Project Director, PI): Dr. Dyehouse is an associate professor in the Department of Professional & Public Writing at the University of Rhode Island. He teaches digital writing and rhetoric, and his main research focus is rhetoric and American pragmatism. He has also published on the role that rhetoric plays in technology development projects.

Sarah Brown (Co-PI): Dr. Brown is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science and director of the Machine Learning for Sociotechnical Systems Lab at the University of Rhode Island. Her research program aims to understand how Machine Learning interacts with complex socio-technical systems that algorithms are deployed into by applied data science collaborations, ML system evaluation, and developing tools to help data scientists to employ best practices.

Leah Heilig (Co-PI): Dr. Heilig is an assistant professor in the Department of Professional & Public Writing at the University of Rhode Island. She specializes in accessibility, technical communication, human-centered design, and disability studies. She can be reached at leah_heilig [at] uri (dot) edu.

Gaurav Khanna (Co-PI): Dr. Khanna is a Professor of Physics and the (founding) Director of the URI Center for Computational Research. His research program involves leveraging mathematical and computational tools towards understanding key aspects of black holes. Dr. Khanna has a much broader interest in the application of computing to any and every discipline. He is an American Physical Society (APS) Fellow.

Julia Lovett (Co-PI): Professor Lovett, MSI, is a Professor in the University Libraries at the University of Rhode Island. As Digital Initiatives Librarian, she oversees digitization and curation of online digital collections. She manages URI's institutional repository and the URI Open Access Policy, and developed the library’s journal publishing services and open ETD program. Her interests include scholarly communication, digital scholarship, and the theory and practice of digital librarianship.

Stephanie West-Puckett (Co-PI): Dr. West-Puckett is an associate professor of Professional & Public Writing and director of First Year Writing at the University of Rhode Island. Her research and teaching interests include digital rhetorics/pedagogy and justice-oriented approaches to writing assessment. Recent publications include articles in College Composition and Communication and Community Literacy. Her co-authored book, Failing Sideways: Queer Possibilities for Writing Assessment (2023), received the Lavender Rhetorics Book Award in 2023.