Sustainability in Hybrid Technologies for Heritage Preservation: A Scientometric Study

The use of augmented reality applied to museums to preserve and communicate cultural heritage sustainably is a topic of increasing relevance today. Museums play an essential role in preserving and disseminating culture and history, and augmented reality has emerged as a powerful technological tool to enrich the visitor experience and ensure the sustainable preservation of cultural heritage. The fundamental objective of this literature review is to explore and understand the key contributions that are being made in the field of augmented reality applied to museums, with a focus on sustainability. The literature related to this topic is dispersed in various sources of information, which motivates the need to carry out a detailed and systematic analysis incorporating sustainability aspects. To carry out this analysis, the metaphor of the “tree of science” is used. This metaphor provides a structured approach that is applied in two complementary ways. Firstly, it focuses on collecting and analyzing scientometric statistics that cover data on countries, authors, academic institutions, and research centers involved in developing augmented reality applications for museums with sustainable methodologies. This quantitative perspective offers a global view of the contributions and their geographical scope including their sustainability impact. Secondly, an evolutionary analysis based on the “tree of science” is carried out. This historical approach examines the origin and evolution of contributions in the field of augmented reality applied to museums, from its first manifestations to the most recent innovations, with an emphasis on sustainable practices. This historical approach is essential to understanding the trajectory and development of augmented reality applications in the museum context and their role in promoting sustainable cultural heritage preservation. This review aims to provide a complete and contextualized view of the use of augmented reality in museums for the sustainable preservation and communication of cultural heritage. Through a multidimensional approach encompassing scientometric statistics and historical analysis, we seek to shed light on this technology’s most significant contributions and evolution in the museum sector, with a particular focus on sustainability.