The Influence of Collaborative and Multi-Modal Mixed Reality: Cultural Learning in Virtual Heritage

Studies in the virtual heritage (VH) domain identify collaboration (social interaction), engagement, and a contextual relationship as key elements of interaction design that influence users’ experience and cultural learning in VH applications. The purpose of this study is to validate whether collaboration (social interaction), engaging experience, and a contextual relationship enhance cultural learning in a collaborative and multi-modal mixed reality (MR) heritage environment. To this end, we have designed and implemented a cloud-based collaborative and multi-modal MR application aiming at enhancing user experience and cultural learning in museums. A conceptual model was proposed based on collaboration, engagement, and relationship in the context of MR experience. The MR application was then evaluated at the Western Australian Shipwrecks Museum by experts, archaeologists, and curators from the gallery and the Western Australian Museum. Questionnaire, semi-structured interview, and observation were used to collect data. The results suggest that integrating collaborative and multi-modal interaction methods with MR technology facilitates enhanced cultural learning in VH.

A bottom-up method for remixing narratives for virtual heritage experiences

Considering the impacts COVID-19 has had on travel and many economies, developing virtual experiences that are well-received by different publics has become even more prominent. This paper shows how a multimodal discourse analysis can be used to as a bottom-up approach to identifying narrative themes that can be used in virtual experiences for cultural heritage sites. A case study on 11 UNESCO World Heritage Australian Convict Sites shows how diverse sources of user-generated content, tourism marketing materials and historical information can be analysed and then remixed into a virtual tour of the sites in the form of an interactive web documentary (iDoc). Although this case study involved a total of seven narrative development phases, this paper focuses on two phases, namely how the user model and content model were determined. These models were later used to develop the resulting iDoc prototype. The user model focused on the prospective audience of cultural heritage tourists, and a content model of narrative themes for the iDoc was developed through a multimodal discourse analysis. This bottom-up approach of analysing existing cultural data allows for the discovery of the prospective audiences’ interests as well as narrative themes that can be included in virtual heritage experiences. It also provides a new creative methodology that can prevent issues that may arise with top-down narratives that focus too heavily on one institutional perspective or national narrative and lack direct engagement with or understanding of today’s publics.

Clouds-Based Collaborative and Multi-Modal Mixed Reality for Virtual Heritage

Recent technological advancements in immersive reality technologies have become a focus area in the virtual heritage (VH) domain. In this regard, this paper attempts to design and implement clouds-based collaborative and multi-modal MR application aiming at enhancing cultural learning in VH. The design and implementation can be adopted by the VH domain for various application themes. The application utilises cloud computing and immersive reality technologies. The use of cloud computing, collaborative, and multi-modal interaction methods is influenced by the following three issues. First, studies show that users’ interaction with immersive reality technologies and virtual environments determines their learning outcome and the overall experience. Second, studies also demonstrate that collaborative and multi-modal interaction methods enable engagement in immersive reality environments. Third, the integration of immersive reality technologies with traditional museums and cultural heritage sites is getting significant attention in the domain. However, a robust approach, development platforms (frameworks) and easily adopted design and implementation approaches, or guidelines are not commonly available to the VH community. This paper, therefore, will attempt to achieve two major goals. First, it attempts to design and implement a novel application that integrates cloud computing, immersive reality technology and VH. Second, it attempts to apply the proposed application to enhance cultural learning. From the perspective of cultural learning and users’ experience, the assumption is that the proposed approach (clouds-based collaborative and multi-modal MR) can enhance cultural learning by (1) establishing a contextual relationship and engagement between users, virtual environments and cultural context in museums and heritage sites, and (2) by enabling collaboration between users.

Virtual Heritage: A Concise Guide

Virtual heritage has been explained as virtual reality applied to cultural heritage, but this definition only scratches the surface of the fascinating applications, tools and challenges of this fast-changing interdisciplinary field. This book provides an accessible but concise edited coverage of the main topics, tools and issues in virtual heritage. Leading international scholars have provided chapters to explain current issues in accuracy and precision; challenges in adopting advanced animation techniques; shows how archaeological learning can be developed in Minecraft; they propose mixed reality is conceptual rather than just technical; they explore how useful Linked Open Data can be for art history; explain how accessible photogrammetry can be but also ethical and practical issues for applying at scale; provide insight into how to provide interaction in museums involving the wider public; and describe issues in evaluating virtual heritage projects not often addressed even in scholarly papers. The book will be of particular interest to students and scholars in museum studies, digital archaeology, heritage studies, architectural history and modelling, virtual environments.

Animating Past Worlds

Creating ‘past worlds’ is more than just creative flair or technical wizardry, it is the distillation of grounded heritage interpretation and reflection as applied to the creative (re)visualization of ancient peoples and landscapes. Be it the digital dinosaurs of Jurassic Park or the fake placement of lifelike digital actors seamlessly inserted within media, virtual heritage is increasingly caught between the praxis of the visual enchantment of feature film and television visual effects (VFX), the increasing visual and phenomenological immersive worlds of 3D, virtual games and the hyper-reality of deep fake VFX. This chapter will provide the basics of animation, while at the same time introducing the reader to the concepts of virtual archaeology and digital cultural heritage from a digital visualization perspective.

Preserving Authenticity in Virtual Heritage

This chapter examines why we wish to preserve heritage objects and practices via virtual heritage, and why the issue of authenticity is so important here but so seldom addressed. If we could give criteria to select and to create useful and even authentic-oriented virtual heritage projects, what would they be? Or are there methods and solutions out there waiting to be discovered?

Evaluation in Virtual Heritage

Evaluation in virtual heritage is concerned with learning about and assessing the extent to which an interactive system offers a satisfactory user experience (UX) and meets user goals and expectations. Evaluation in virtual heritage is an empirical process of research, which reaches for conclusions about the quality of a system by observing, measuring (aspects of), and interpreting the UX. It is inherently a complex activity that requires careful planning and selection of methods. It does not rely on underlying technology; however, adaptations of process and methods must be made to allow for results and feedback in context. Therefore, it must be designed so that it is useful, reliable, valid, and productive. Evaluation methods and processes are of interest to both cultural heritage (CH) professionals and technology designers, who aim to provide systems that address the widest range of potential users. This chapter discusses basic concepts, processes, and empirical evaluation methods in virtual heritage, with examples.

Virtual Restoration and Virtual Reconstruction in Cultural Heritage: Terminology, Methodologies, Visual Representation Techniques and Cognitive Models

Today, the practice of making digital replicas of artworks and restoring and recontextualizing them within artificial simulations is widespread in the virtual heritage domain. Virtual reconstructions have achieved results of great realistic and aesthetic impact. Alongside the practice, a growing methodological awareness has developed of the extent to which, and how, it is permissible to virtually operate in the field of restoration, avoid a false sense of reality, and preserve the reliability of the original content. However, there is not yet a full sharing of meanings in virtual restoration and reconstruction domains. Therefore, this article aims to clarify and define concepts, functions, fields of application, and methodologies. The goal of virtual heritage is not only producing digital replicas. In the absence of materiality, what emerges as a fundamental value are the interaction processes, the semantic values that can be attributed to the model itself. The cognitive process originates from this interaction. The theoretical discussion is supported by exemplar case studies carried out by the authors over almost twenty years. Finally, the concepts of uniqueness and authenticity need to be again pondered in light of the digital era. Indeed, real and virtual should be considered as a continuum, as they exchange information favoring new processes of interaction and critical thinking.