Enhanced Virtual Reality Experience in Personalised Virtual Museums

2020 ◽  
pp. 1348-1366
Author(s):  
Chairi Kiourt ◽  
Anestis Koutsoudis ◽  
Dimitris Kalles

This article focuses on important factors in the creation of enhanced personalised experiences in virtual environments for cultural heritage applications, especially those targeting virtual museums and exhibitions. Some of the most important factors relating to personalised virtual museums that relate to intelligent content and user modelling in virtual environments are being highlighted and discussed. After an extensive review of the current trends in the domain, the article presents a generalised framework for the development of the next generation enhanced VR experiences in personalised virtual museums. This framework, which naturally surfaces from the domain, was put to the test in the development of the DynaMus platform and two case studies based on this platform are referenced and commented to support such an approach. This concept can serve as the general framework for developing enhanced personalised virtual environments for cultural heritage applications.

Author(s):  
Chairi Kiourt ◽  
Anestis Koutsoudis ◽  
Dimitris Kalles

This article focuses on important factors in the creation of enhanced personalised experiences in virtual environments for cultural heritage applications, especially those targeting virtual museums and exhibitions. Some of the most important factors relating to personalised virtual museums that relate to intelligent content and user modelling in virtual environments are being highlighted and discussed. After an extensive review of the current trends in the domain, the article presents a generalised framework for the development of the next generation enhanced VR experiences in personalised virtual museums. This framework, which naturally surfaces from the domain, was put to the test in the development of the DynaMus platform and two case studies based on this platform are referenced and commented to support such an approach. This concept can serve as the general framework for developing enhanced personalised virtual environments for cultural heritage applications.


Author(s):  
Cristina Portalés ◽  
Sergio Casas ◽  
Lucía Vera ◽  
Javier Sevilla

Cultural heritage (CH) tells us about our roots, and therefore, constitutes a rich value for the society. Its conservation, dissemination, and understanding are of utmost importance. In order to preserve CH for the upcoming generations, it needs to be documented, a process that nowadays is done digitally. Current trends involve a set of technologies (cameras, scanners, etc.) for the shape and radiometric acquisition of assets. Also, intangible CH can be digitally documented in a variety of forms. Having such assets virtualized, a proper dissemination channel is of relevance, and recently, new technologies that make use of interaction paradigms have emerged. Among them, in this chapter, the authors focus their attention in the technologies of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and serious games (SGs). They aim to explore these technologies in order to show their benefits in the dissemination and understanding of CH. Though the work involving them is not trivial, and usually a multidisciplinary team is required, the benefits for CH make them worth it.


Author(s):  
Jaume Segura-Garcia ◽  
Mario Montagud-Climent ◽  
Sebastià Mirasol-Menacho ◽  
Joan Oleza-Simó

AbstractNowadays, the use of virtual reality/virtual acoustics (VR/VA) in archaeology for rendering lost buildings is an important topic in the cultural heritage field. Moreover, the addition of additional senses apart from the sight increases the feeling of immersion in virtual environments. The aim of this paper is to show the interaction work developed in a VA system, based on Unity and FMOD, the graphical and acoustical reconstruction of an ancient building and the development of a VR goggles with headphones to render 3D audio and video interactively. This system has been implemented to render auralizations in a binaural system and has been applied to the renderization of an old and lost theatre in València (Spain). The first building of theatre was built in the 16th century, and was rebuilt several times until the 18th century. The auralization of several theatrical excerpts of different Spanish authors of that time is also presented. The integrated system has been subjectively evaluated, obtaining very satisfactory results.


2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-67
Author(s):  
Matúš Formanek ◽  
Vladimír Filip ◽  
Adam Hnat

AbstractThis paper maps out the possibilities of using virtual and augmented reality in the context of virtual museums and galleries. In addition to the many advantages that virtual reality offers in new knowledge acquisition and presentation of cultural heritage objects, we also describe some possible disadvantages or problems directly related to this technology. Next, we try to find the answer to whether the presentation of selected objects of cultural heritage through virtual reality brings better results compared to the presentation in a traditional, museal form in the research part of the article. In conclusion, we summarise and present the results of the conducted research based on the statements of 138 students who participated in our testing.


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 34-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryam Mousavi ◽  
Yap Hwa Jen ◽  
Siti Nurmaya Binti Musa

With the emerge of new technologies many systems are presented to a wider range of users at reasonable costs. Virtual Reality (VR) technology has also entered many new economical areas such as tourism, business, online games, and also cultural heritage. The new advancement in VR and its availability to the end user in many forms necessitates considering the health issues because cybersickness is one of the drawbacks of Virtual Environments (VE). In addition, usability of the VE and the provided VR technology and system is of paramount importance in the market to attract the user. However, usability measurement of the VE also has become a difficult issue due to the vast range of products and users. A review on the cybersickness and usability issues in VE is prepared and presented in this paper.


Author(s):  
Sathiya Narayanan ◽  
Nikshith Narayan Ramesh ◽  
Amit Kumar Tyagi ◽  
L. Jani Anbarasi ◽  
Benson Edwin Raj

In the recent years, innovations such as Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and internet of things have enhanced user experience dramatically. In general, AR is completely different from VR and provides real-time solutions to users by projecting layers of information on real-world environments. Advancements in computer-generated sensory have made the concept of believable virtual environments a reality. With the availability of such technologies, one can investigate “how these technologies can be applied beyond gaming or other useful applications” and “how further improvements can be made to allow for full digital immersion.” This chapter provides a detailed description about AR and VR, followed by interesting real-world examples of AR applications. In addition, this chapter discusses the issues and challenges faced with AR/VR with a motivation of exploring the options for improvement.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 338
Author(s):  
George Margetis ◽  
Konstantinos C. Apostolakis ◽  
Stavroula Ntoa ◽  
George Papagiannakis ◽  
Constantine Stephanidis

Culture is a field that is currently entering a revolutionary phase, no longer being a privilege for the few, but expanding to new audiences who are urged to not only passively consume cultural heritage content, but actually participate and assimilate it on their own. In this context, museums have already embraced new technologies as part of their exhibitions, many of them featuring augmented or virtual reality artifacts. The presented work proposes the synthesis of augmented, virtual and mixed reality technologies to provide unified X-Reality experiences in realistic virtual museums, engaging visitors in an interactive and seamless fusion of physical and virtual worlds that will feature virtual agents exhibiting naturalistic behavior. Visitors will be able to interact with the virtual agents, as they would with real world counterparts. The envisioned approach is expected to not only provide refined experiences for museum visitors, but also achieve high quality entertainment combined with more effective knowledge acquisition.


2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 18-29
Author(s):  
Andrew Ray

Virtual environments (VEs) demonstrate the immense potential computer technology can provide to society. VEs have been created for almost two decades, but standardized tools and procedures for their creation do not exist. Numerous efforts to create tools for creating VEs have come and gone, but there is little consensus among tool creators for establishing a common subset of standard features that developers can expect. Currently, developers use one of many Virtual Reality (VR) toolkits to create a VE. However, VR toolkits are problematic when it comes to interoperability between applications and other VR toolkits. This paper investigates why the development tools are in this state. A discussion on the history of VR toolkits and developer experiences is used to show what developers face when they create a VE. Next, Three Dimensional Interaction Technique (3DIT) toolkits are introduced to show a new way of developing some parts of VEs. Lastly, a vision for the future of VE development that may help improve the next generation of toolkits is presented.


Author(s):  
Maria Economou ◽  
Laia Pujol Tost

Virtual reality applications offer various possibilities for cultural heritage interpretation, such as giving users the feeling of immersion and appealing to all their senses, making their experience lively and memorable. In order to test their effectiveness for assisting learning and successful integration in exhibitions, the authors carried out an extensive evaluation study using three case studies: the exhibition “Immaginare Roma Antica” at the Trajan Markets, Rome; the permanent displays at the Ename Museum, Belgium; and the VR displays at Hellenic Cosmos, Foundation of the Hellenic World, Athens. The chapter analyses how the applications were used, the type of learning different systems supported, how this was affected by the conditions of use, and their suitability for different groups. It also offers guidelines on evaluation methodology when studying the use of ICT in cultural settings. The study contributes to the construction of a substantial body of empirical and methodological knowledge aimed at guiding future designs and evaluations of ICT tools in exhibitions.


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