HXP-4: Mobile Heritage Computing — Location-Aware Deployment of the Historical Experience Engine at Physical Sites

Location-aware heritage applications exist as GPS-triggered audio tours, historical photo overlays, and reconstructed 3D scenes at real-world sites. None combines on-site historical reconstruction, NPC-inhabited simulation, and customer-led free exploration in a handheld mobile experience. This paper addresses the design constraints specific to deploying the Historical Experience Engine on mobile at physical heritage sites: registration accuracy, battery management, session brevity, and the intimacy of a personal device held at a real place. Research in environmental psychology demonstrates that physical co-location with sites of historical significance produces distinctive emotional engagement; mobile heritage research shows that in-situ interaction makes history learning more authentic, enacted, and memorable. Three demonstration scenarios are described: Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill (pre-European Māori pā), Auckland Viaduct (1920s harbour), and any personally meaningful location. Emotional use cases are identified: grief processing through reconstruction of lost places, and cultural reconnection for displaced communities through reconstruction of ancestral landscapes. A systematic survey confirms that no existing mobile product satisfies all five defining properties (location-triggered, 3D reconstruction, NPC-inhabited, simulation-driven, free exploration). The paper completes the four-paper HXP series, addressing the mobile-specific constraints that make the Historical Experience Engine intimate, location-aware, and emotionally resonant.