Augmented reality in museums: Augmented reality supported museum application in the context of NFT applications (The case of Bolu Museum)

Augmented Reality (AR) is the enrichment of objects with a digital layer by referring to real environment objects and the experience of this enrichment process with smart devices. Augmented reality technology has been used in many fields since Sensorama, which was invented by Morton Heilig in 1957 and can be called the first augmented reality-based mechanism. Museums, one of these areas, have enabled people to approach museums from a different perspective with their augmented reality-supported displays. It is possible to see examples of this technology, which is widely used in cultural and artistic fields, in many museums around the world. However, it is known that the use of this technology is not common in our country and is open to development. Within the framework of the Eleventh Development Plan published by the Strategy and Budget Office the Republic of Turkey; augmented reality is included under the title of Critical Technologies and its importance is stated in Article 355. In the same development plan, it is seen that the issues of increasing the quality and quantity of museums within the understanding of contemporary museology and giving importance to culture and art education from an early age in order to develop culture and art as a life habit are also mentioned. In this study, in order to reinforce the museum awareness, culture and technology awareness of children who can quickly adapt to developing technologies and museum visitors of all ages; Augmented reality designs were implemented for the works in the Bolu Museum and informational designs were created for the visitors. Augmented reality designs are listed as NFT, and in the theoretical context, how the concepts of augmented reality, NFT and Metaverse can be beneficial for the promotion of museums and cultural properties are discussed in detail. In addition, a website has been designed and published, where visitors can experience the augmented reality experience through some works without the need to visit the museum. It is thought that this study will make original contributions to the literature by considering augmented reality technology, which is one of the critical technologies in the eleventh development plan, producing augmented reality designs, and using augmented reality together with NFT and Metaverse dimensions in the light of current technological developments.