Design and Application of an Immersive Silk Road Cultural Tourism Experience Based on Smart Textile Wearable Devices

Jianqiang Wang, Jingjing Guo

Article
2025 / Volume 8 / Pages 827-845
Received 8 July 2025; Accepted 7 August 2025; Published 26 November 2025
https://doi.org/10.31881/TLR.2025.827

Abstract
To address the limitations of current digital cultural tourism, which is predominantly centered on auditory and visual stimuli and often lacks deep, embodied engagement, this paper presents the design and evaluation of an immersive cultural tourism solution for the Silk Road. The core of the system is a smart textile wearable, the “Silk Road Traveler’s Robe” (SRTR), which integrates a flexible haptic feedback array, a temperature module, and dynamic lighting units. This robe communicates in real-time with an augmented reality (AR) application via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). The AR application digitally reconstructs significant Silk Road cultural scenes, such as the Dunhuang Grottoes and Kuqa music and dance. By mapping virtual events to the wearable device’s physical feedback, the system facilitates a multi-sensory, immersive cultural exploration. A comparative study involving 30 participants was designed to assess the system’s effectiveness. The results showed that the experimental group using the SRTR system exhibited significantly higher levels of immersion, presence, and cognitive efficiency regarding cultural information (p < 0.01) compared to the control group, which used a traditional AR-only experience. This study validates that integrating smart textile wearables enhances the authenticity and emotional connection of cultural experiences, presenting a novel technological approach for the digital cultural tourism industry.

Keywords
smart textiles, wearable devices, immersive experience, cultural tourism, human-computer interaction