Widening access to intangible cultural heritage: Towards the development of an innovative platform

The paper discusses around Human Computer Interaction aspects of advanced learning systems. It underlines the added value (in terms of widening the learning possibilities and enhancing the learning experience) of designing the system itself only after having carefully taken into account the users requirements regulating the interactions between the learners and the technological environments. In doing so, it offers the view of what has been done in the EU project i-Treasures, which focuses on Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICHs) and investigates whether and to what extent new technology can play a role in widening the access to the underpinning rare know-how, and possibly sustaining its transmission / passing down to next generations. The project can be regarded as exemplar since it instantiates a very peculiar situation where HCI aspects are deeply affected by the fact that the i-Treasures technological system foresees the massive use of cutting edge sensors.