AI-Enhanced Interactive Storytelling for Cultural Heritage: A Prototype System for Dunhuang Murals

The digitization of cultural heritage offers opportunities for preservation and dissemination but also presents challenges in fostering public engagement and narrative coherence. This paper proposes an interactive storytelling system that integrates AI technologies, including AI agents, LLMs, and visualization tools, to enhance user engagement with cultural heritage. Using the Jataka story murals from the Dunhuang grottoes as a case study, the proposed system features three core modules: mural segmentation with cultural context explanations, an interactive knowledge graph that enables users to engage with the murals through storytelling, and user-driven creative reconstruction through comic-style narratives. An AI agent supports these modules by offering conversational interactions that provide real-time explanations, personalized guidance, and creative suggestions. User evaluations based on the User Experience Questionnaire demonstrate the system's effectiveness in promoting user engagement, with particularly high scores in attractiveness, novelty, and stimulation. These results suggest that the system increases accessibility and interactivity, helping users form deeper emotional and intellectual connections with cultural heritage. The prototype system demonstrates the framework's potential to make cultural heritage more accessible and participatory, fostering richer connections through interaction, storytelling, and creative expression. These findings highlight the potential of this approach to connect traditional heritage with contemporary audiences, offering new avenues for participation, learning, and creative engagement.