The idea sparked during our brainstorming session in the convocation room; a spacious room filled with large portraits of notable figures and professors from Princeton University. We were looking to execute a project related to augmented reality and thought how awesome it would be to have the paintings come to life and explain the narrative of the art piece (i.e. in a way much like the fat lady guarding Gryffindor's homeroom in Harry Potter). But unfortunately, magic isn't real and we had to take a step back to think about practical ways in which we could make understanding art engaging, enriching and comprehensible.

DocentAR is a mobile app that is designed for museum-goers to better understand art. Alright, we will admit, that previous sentence was abstract and difficult to understand- much like the experience of most visitors who leave the museum not fully understanding what they saw and learned. Museum-goers may lack sufficient knowledge to fully appreciate the work and let's not forget how artwork labels are often written in convoluted styles.

In this version of the product, we brought Vincent Van Gogh to life, for him to explain "The Starry Night" (1989) to the audiences. With an AR enable device, museum-goers would be able to see and hear an avatar of Van Gogh sharing about the painting from both his perspective as well as that of art critics. With DocentAR, we make it easier for the layperson and even young children to understand art, cultivating a world that appreciates creativity, beauty, and freedom of expression.

To increase the functionality of the product, we also designed an AR map that enables museum-goers to easily navigate around the building.

See a demo of our product here