Frequently Asked Questions

Company FAQs

ARtGlass is an augmented reality (AR) software and services company tailored to serving cultural sites, attractions, and tourist destinations.

ARtGlass provides a full range of services, from TourBuilder, our 100% proprietary do-it-yourself AR content creation platform, to full-service custom experience creation where our team handles all the details. See the “Products” page for more information.

ARtGlass is the world’s leading provider of augmented reality experiences for cultural and historic sites and attractions. That said, we also frequently serve trade shows, tourism companies, and product launches, and our software is well-suited for narrative experiences regardless of industry.

Our winning team. As a group of passionate technologists, historians, and culturalists, our software is designed around the art of storytelling. TourBuilder allows anyone with a story to tell to access AR as a medium.

Technology FAQs

Augmented reality (AR) is the overlaying of digital information (whether that be videos, audio, images, and more) over top of a user’s real-world environment thus creating a composite view that blends the digital and physical worlds. Unlike virtual reality (VR), which is a fully digital world that completely covers the real world, AR is location-dependent. ARtGlass does not provide VR experiences but TourBuilder supports lite-VR (including interactive 360s) as part of its toolkit. To learn more visit our “TourBuilder” page.

TourBuilder is our proprietary augmented reality content creation platform. Users can write their scripts, edit, arrange, and animate content, and publish their experiences all without ever leaving the platform. TourBuilder is code-free and optimized for use by museum and attraction staff. To learn more visit our “TourBuilder” page.

Users can create incredibly dynamic, layered experiences implementing animated 3D models, 360 panoramas, archival footage, directional audio, holograms, interactives, and more. Content can also be directly animated within the system itself using an intuitive integrated timeline. Experiences can be as long or short as needed with most ARtGlass produced tours lasting around 45-60 minutes.

Yes! TourBuilder is designed for use by everyday people. The program is intuitive and also has built-in tutorials, example projects, and a wizard to help lead the way. For users wanting additional assistance, we also offer various service packages. See the “Services” page for more information.

As a software and services company, we rely on third-party hardware vendors. As such, we are hardware agnostic and work with everything from smartglasses to mixed reality headsets to mobile offerings like tablets and smartphones. This can seem like a lot to navigate but we provide a handy hardware comparison guide and also offer procurement services. For more information see the “Services” page.

Our web-based AR viewer is optimized for bring-your-own-device experiences as it can stream the full range of touring content and requires no downloads. For sites with poor connectivity, site-managed offline devices might be preferable. Please see the “Products” page for more information.