THE PRESENT IN THE FUTURE IS THE PAST: Applying Generative AI to Visualize and Imagine Cultural Heritage Sites in Both Augmented and Physical Reality

Visitors to Cultural Heritage (CH) sites are often only able to observe the current degraded state of these locations without the understanding of their history and personal connection possessed by local inhabitants. To facilitate expression of this intangible aspects of CH, we collected Generative AI (GenAI) created images of the past and future of CH sites from workshop participants, and displayed these images in Augmented Reality (AR) form, and as drawn by a physical drawing robot. The collected imagined CH images are shown in an AR app that uses markers on a large scale 3D map model of the city. The images are also drawn physically by a robot when visitors mention the names of the CH in answering questions to a chat query, serving as markers created in progress for the AR. Visitors found the experience engaging for illuminating intangible connections of people to CH sites. This work highlights the way GenAI-created images can be shown in AR and physical forms to empower imagination and expression for social purpose.