Search

In recent years, virtual reality (VR) has been reaching its maturity level for practical applications amongst many fields of studies, especially in the exploration system of applied VR in cultural heritage that enables virtual walkthroughs. However, this study remains scattered and limited in the area of applied VR in cultural heritage. Therefore, a comprehensive systematic review is conducted to create a coherent taxonomy within this research scope through extensive article searches on VR, virtual heritage, and usability. Articles were searched from four databases, consisting of an expansive collection of literature covering studies from 2007 to January 2020. A total of 290 articles were obtained from the final data search and categorized into 4 taxonomy schemes classifications. The classes consist of VR-related review or survey articles, case studies, systems design and development, and evaluation studies. This paper also presents the robust and generic motivations based on the derived taxonomy of the integration of VR in cultural heritage in the context of software and hardware applications, designs, developments and assessments. The article searches also ascertained that applied VR in cultural heritage could broadly be utilized to provide customizable multimedia contents inside the VR environments, resulting in a higher degree of immersion, and this sense of presence, especially in the reconstruction of cultural heritage via applied VR. Henceforth, VR in cultural heritage has the power to extend its capabilities of influencing users by capturing their attention, which are essential functionalities in multimedia VR systems designed for transferring historical information in a more enriched, immersive, and effective manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the advancement of digital technology in virtual heritage (VH) projects, there is still a paucity of research in methods to support sense of place in architectural virtual heritage environment (VHE). This paper argues that studies on the sensation of place in a virtual environment (VE) could be linked to the ever-expanding presence research domain. The impact of the level of immersion and realism in VE towards evoking the sense of presence could be considered to be one of the most discussed topics in presence research. This paper presents the methods and findings from a qualitative experiment designed to analyse user's real-time feedbacks from three levels of immersive systems. The experiment aims to measure the significance of virtual presence in contributing towards user's sense of place experience in a VHE. Based on the findings, the system that produces a better virtual presence such as HMD may not be suitable for all type of users even if it delivers better learning experience of cultural heritage places. It may, however, only be determined by personal preferences and immersive device factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeological excavations provide us with important clues about the past. Excavated artefacts represent an important connection to civilisations that no longer exist and help us understand some of their customs, traditions and common practices. With the help of academics and practitioners from various disciplines, the results of archaeological excavations can be analysed and a body of knowledge about the corresponding society can be created and shared with members of the general public. Museums have traditionally served the purpose of communicating this knowledge and backing it up with the help of the excavated artefacts. Many museum visitors, however, find it difficult to develop a coherent understanding of the corresponding society only based on the artefacts and annotations shown in museums. Effective modern techniques that have high potential in helping museum visitors with better understanding of the past are 3D reconstruction and virtual reality. 3D reconstruction offers a cost-effective way of recreating historical settlements in a computer-generated virtual environment, while virtual reality helps with immersing people into such environments and reaching a high degree of realism. With the help of these technologies, it becomes possible to relive history, imagine yourself being a part of the reconstructed society and learn about its culture firsthand. The combination of 3D reconstruction and virtual reality represents a very powerful learning tool; however, this tool has been rarely used in a museum setting and its correct use has not been properly investigated. In this paper, we present a study into using virtual reality in itinerant archaeological exhibitions. We discuss the lessons we have learned from developing an interactive virtual reality simulation of the Neolithic settlement of La Draga. These lessons feature our analysis of qualitative and quantitative feedback of museum visitors, as well as what we have learned from analysing their navigation and interaction patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual reality provides the possibility for interactive visits to historic buildings and sites. The majority of current virtual reconstructions have focused on creating realistic virtual environments, by concentrating on the visual component. However, by incorporating more authentic acoustical properties into visual models, a more realistic rendering of the studied venue is achieved. In historic auralizations, calibration of the studied building's room acoustic simulation model is often necessary to come to a realistic representation of its acoustical environment. This paper presents a methodical calibration procedure for geometrical acoustics models using room acoustics prediction programs based on geometrical acoustics to create realistic virtual audio realities, or auralizations. To develop this procedure, a small unfinished amphitheater was first chosen due to its general simplicity and considerable level of reverberation. A geometrical acoustics model was calibrated according to the results of acoustical measurements. Measures employed during the calibration of this model were analyzed to come to a methodical calibration procedure. The developed procedure was then applied to a more complex building, the abbey church Saint-Germain-des-Prés. A possible application of the presented procedure is to enable interactive acoustical visits of former configurations of buildings. A test case study was carried out for a typical seventeenth-century configuration of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study evaluated the effect on cultural understanding of three different interaction modes, each teamed with a specific slice of the digitally reconstructed environment. The three interaction modes were derived from an initial descriptive theory of cultural learning as instruction, observation and action. A major aim was to ascertain whether task performance was similar to the development of understanding of the cultural context reached by participation in the virtual environment. A hypothesis was that if task performance is equivalent to understanding and engagement, we might be able to evaluate the success of virtual heritage environments (through engagement and education), without having to annoy the user with post-experience questionnaires. However, results suggest interaction in virtual heritage environments is so contextually embedded; subjective post-test questionnaires can still be more reliable than evaluating task performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the integration of artificial life simulations with interactive games-based technologies and describes how the results are being exploited not only for scientific visualisation and education, but also for fundamental research into simulation complexity, focusing on the behavioural representation of species in fragile or long-vanished landscapes and ecosystems. Earlier research is described that supported the development of a virtual recreation of a submerged Mesolithic river valley, discovered during petrochemical surveys of the Southern Basin of the North Sea. Using pollen sample records and vegetation predictions from previous studies, a new alife “engine” was developed that simulated the interaction between “artificialised” vegetation and environmental factors, thus helping researchers to postulate pre-glacial melting migratory and settlement patterns of ancient civilisations from continental Europe to the British Isles. More recently, and to take advantage of the existence of a more accessible and living ecosystem, work has been conducted in collaboration with the UK’s National Marine Aquarium, this time focusing on the Scylla Artificial Reef—a Royal Navy frigate scuttled off the coast of Cornwall in South West England. The resulting “serious games”-based test beds are now providing the foundation for scientific investigations into how models and simulations of marine ecologies behave under different measures of complexity. The exploitation of the artificial life and underwater rendering efforts in others areas, including education and naval training, are also described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel AR interface is proposed that provides generic solutions to the tasks involved in augmenting simultaneously different types of virtual information and processing of tracking data for natural interaction. Participants within the system can experience a real-time mixture of 3D objects, static video, images, textual information and 3D sound with the real environment. The user-friendly AR interface can achieve maximum interaction using simple but effective forms of collaboration based on the combinations of human–computer interaction techniques. To prove the feasibility of the interface, the use of indoor AR techniques are employed to construct innovative applications and demonstrate examples from heritage to learning systems. Finally, an initial evaluation of the AR interface including some initial results is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes our proposal for storytelling in virtual environments from a virtual guide perspective, detailing the involved knowledge representation and algorithms. In our model the guide begins at a particular location and starts to navigate the world telling the user stories related to the places she visits. Our guide tries to emulate a real guide’s behaviour in such a situation. In particular, she behaves as a spontaneous real guide who knows stories about the places in the virtual world but has not prepared an exhaustive tour nor a storyline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]