My Heritage Companion: An AI-Driven Mobile Experience for Visual Storytelling

Abstract

My Heritage Companion is a mobile-first framework that reimagines cultural heritage engagement through ethically adaptive, simulation-based personalization. The system enables users to upload personal visual artifacts—such as sketches, heirlooms, or travel photographs—which serve as entry points for AI-informed, persona-driven storytelling. Rather than relying on behavioral tracking or social media integration, it employs a cold-start personalization approach using rule-based persona modeling to deliver cognitively accessible, culturally contextualized narratives. The framework integrates four core modules: image ingestion, simulated AI-based visual matching, persona-driven narrative adaptation, and privacy safeguards guided by the FATE principles (Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics). The current prototype simulates AI behavior using real heritage imagery from Failaka Island—an archaeological site of multi-era significance spanning the Dilmun, Hellenistic, and early Islamic periods. This simulation pipeline validates user experience logic, interface adaptability, and narrative delivery across five user personas. My Heritage Companion advances digital museology by supporting inclusive access to cultural heritage in privacy-sensitive, low-infrastructure contexts. It demonstrates how mobile-first systems can ethically bridge personal memory and public history through adaptive storytelling—empowering users to become co-creators of heritage experiences.

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