Taiping's Tempo and Urban Tempts: Life-long Learning through a Virtual Living-street Museum Framework

This is a conceptual paper. It combines the themes of 'Virtual Worlds' with 'Pervasive Computing for Life-long Learning'. The project began with the issue of conserving urban heritage with the necessity for development. The historical street of Jalan Taming Sari, Taiping is used as the context setting. A framework to reconcile the situation is proposed that mixed augmented reality and pervasive computing technology into the everyday life. The first layer of the project is documenting the existing condition of the architectural works along the street. Historical structures are noted. New development schemes are injected into empty parcels or added to existing structures as permissible within the urban design and development regulations. The second layer involves 3D digital-modeling the street in its past and present conditions and future vision. The third layer outlines the technological framework that mixes augmented reality and pervasive computing as a method for life-long learning about the historical importance of Jalan Taming Sari. Targeted users are tourists, researchers and students. Selected nodes have been proposed as registration touch-points for them to activate the interfacing devices for experiencing the street in its past, present or future modes. Life-long learning is embedded in this commercial oriented virtual living-street museum.