The relationship between Science and Arts has kept during the course of the history moments of proximity or distancing, arriving to be understood as two different cultures, but also interdisciplinal situations of collaboration and interchange have occurred that nowadays keep as common nexus the digital culture and the use of computers. According to (Berenguer, 2002), since the appearance of computers, scientifics and artists have found a common space of work and understanding. Within the use of new technologies, the distance that separates both disciplines is each time shorter. In this doctoral thesis, whose title is “augmented reality multimedia environments in the field of arts”, a theoretical-practical of research of augmented reality technology is presented, applied to the field of arts and related areas, such as edutainment. The research has been carried out in two blocks: in the first block the technology is reviewed according to different factors that have been considered to be relevant for their understanding and functioning; in the second block a total of six rehearsals are presented, which form the practical part of this doctoral thesis.

The first chapter of first block begins within a definition of augmented reality (AR) technology and related technologies, from the ones given by different authors in different periods; it can be seen how the term has evolved to cover a much wider field, in which multimodal devices are included; several characteristics defining this technology are taken, from which the concept considered in this doctoral thesis is derived. A historical evolution is also presented from the beginnings of XX century of close technologies that have lead to the actuality of AR, as well as several examples of applications and developments fulfilled by researchers in different areas, apart from arts, as education, entertainment, engineering or medicine, with the aim to describe the utility and give a general vision of this novel technology. In subsequent chapters the spatial relation between the physical 3D environment and the image captured by the camera in real time is described, as well as the transformations that relate that environment with its homologous virtual, to build an augmented scene that is consistent, i.e., plausible. A bibliographic review has also been carried out regarding to fundamental devices of this technology: sensors and displays. To that purpose a classification has been done, bringing diverse examples of developments as well as AR applications that have them integrated. It has been considered also to be relevant to review the different software that exists nowadays for the generation of augmented reality scenes, centring the attention in those based on the recognition of fiducial markers, due to their advantages and extended use. Finally, in this block the final user interaction and experience in AR environments has been reviewed.

The rehearsals at the second block, technologically are within the chapters in the first block, and conceptually treat different aspects upon a point of view close to arts, edutainment or entertainment. Therefore, in the first of the rehearsals, under the title Usuario Aumentado, the typical spatial relationship of AR systems is inverted and the magic mirror metaphor is used to cause a transformation of the perceived own image, that questions the own identity; technically the ARToolKit libraries are used to overlap (at the image) a set of animated 3D models to a markers that the user wears. In the second of the rehearsals, UrbanMix, an own outdoors AR application is achieved in which different urban spaces are mixed; as case study, the integration of two historical monuments of the centre of Valencia into the University of Valencia is presented; technologically, a tracking of the user is presented via the combination of an inertial sensor and photogrammetric or computer vision techniques; furthermore, the occlusion problem is also solved. In the third rehearsal, Hot Images, a new cartography of an urban environment is proposed, by means of addition of human connotations to the inert buildings; a novel pedestrian navigation system is proposed, by means of colour gradations that go from red (meaning close, hot) to blue (remoteness, cold), idea taken from the popular childish game of hot/cold; technically the location of the user is achieved by the combination of a GPS receiver and an inertial sensor. In the forth of the rehearsals, Live LEGO House, a game for children is proposed by means of an “augmented” house made with the LEGO blocks, in which two dolls live together; the magic mirror metaphor is used and a game of interactions is established within the different elements of the house, executing diverse sound and graphic elements; by means of a set of conditions established within the programming environment, “good behaviour” of the dolls is rewarded, promoting therefore the coexistence between them; furthermore, several multicultural concepts are introduced by computer generated objects. In the fifth rehearsal, CatedrAR, a natural feature tracking based program is used to augment two elements of the Cathedral of Valencia; in this way, the interior of the renaissance vault located over the major altar, is augmented with the image of its homologous baroque, nowadays dismantled; on the other hand, the reredos of the major altar is augmented with a disappeared silver reredos, dating from sigle XV. In the last of the rehearsals, AR-Jazz, an AR environment is recreated to visualize sound and movement of several musicians interpreting Jazz fragments on a stage, in a Jam session, preceded by a learning phase by means of a workshop.

Finally, some conclusions are presented, so much of the first block as of the second one, in which not only criteria are established from each of the items considered, but also the different presented rehearsals are compared in order to critically evaluate the obtained results, so much as the adequacy of the used devices as the success reached regarding to the conceptual level.