Developing serious games for cultural heritage: a state-of-the-art review

Although the widespread use of gaming for leisure purposes has been well documented, the use of games to support cultural heritage purposes, such as historical teaching and learning, or for enhancing museum visits, has been less well considered. The state-of-the-art in serious game technology is identical to that of the state-of-the-art in entertainment games technology. As a result, the field of serious heritage games concerns itself with recent advances in computer games, real-time computer graphics, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, the main strengths of serious gaming applications may be generalised as being in the areas of communication, visual expression of information, collaboration mechanisms, interactivity and entertainment. In this report, we will focus on the state-of-the-art with respect to the theories, methods and technologies used in serious heritage games. We provide an overview of existing literature of relevance to the domain, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the described methods and point out unsolved problems and challenges. In addition, several case studies illustrating the application of methods and technologies used in cultural heritage are presented

Serious Games in Cultural Heritage

Although the widespread use of gaming for leisure purposes has been well documented, the use of games to support cultural heritage purposes, such as historical teaching and learning, or for enhancing museum visits, has been less well considered. The state-of-the-art in serious game technology is identical to that of the state-of-the-art in entertainment games technology. As a result the field of serious heritage games concerns itself with recent advances in computer games, real-time computer graphics, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, the main strengths of serious gaming applications may be generalised as being in the areas of communication, visual expression of information, collaboration mechanisms, interactivity and entertainment. In this report, we will focus on the state-of-the-art with respect to the theories, methods and technologies used in serious heritage games. We provide an overview of existing literature of relevance to the domain, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the described methods and point out unsolved problems and challenges. In addition, several case studies illustrating the application of methods and technologies used in cultural heritage are presented

Soft shadows using sp-line approximation

© 2015 Penerbit UTM Press. All rights reserved. Realistic soft shadows are an important factor to enhance the realism of Augmented Reality systems. Without shadows, virtual objects would look floating over the scene resulting unrealistic rendering of AR environment. Little attention has been directed towards balanced trade-off between shadow quality and computational cost. In this study, a new approach is proposed; Quadratic Sp-line Interpolation (QSI) to soften the outline of the shadow. QSI estimates the border of hard shadow samples. In more details, a reflective hemisphere is used to capture real light then to create an environment map. Implementation of the Median Cut algorithm is performed to locate the direction of real light sources on the environment map. Subsequently, the original hard shadows are retrieved and a sample of multilayer hard shadows is produced. The proposed technique is tested by using three samples of multilayer hard shadows with a varied number of light sources that are generated from the Median Cut algorithm. The experimental results show that the proposed technique has successfully produced realistic soft shadows with low computational costs

Shadow Generation in Augmented Reality: A Complete Survey

This paper provides an overview of the issues and techniques involved in shadow generation in mixed reality environments. Shadow generation techniques in virtual environments are explained briefly. The key factors characterizing the well-known techniques are described in detail and the pros and cons of each technique are discussed. The conceptual perspective, the improvements, and future techniques are also investigated, sum- marized, and analysed in depth. This paper aims to provide researchers with a solid background on the state- of-the-art implementation of shadows in mixed reality. Thus, this could make it easier to choose the most appropriate method to achieve the aims. It is also hoped that this analysis will help researchers find solutions to the problems facing each technique

LivePhantom: Retrieving Virtual World Light Data to Real Environments.

To achieve realistic Augmented Reality (AR), shadows play an important role in creating a 3D impression of a scene. Casting virtual shadows on real and virtual objects is one of the topics of research being conducted in this area. In this paper, we propose a new method for creating complex AR indoor scenes using real time depth detection to exert virtual shadows on virtual and real environments. A Kinect camera was used to produce a depth map for the physical scene mixing into a single real-time transparent tacit surface. Once this is created, the camera's position can be tracked from the reconstructed 3D scene. Real objects are represented by virtual object phantoms in the AR scene enabling users holding a webcam and a standard Kinect camera to capture and reconstruct environments simultaneously. The tracking capability of the algorithm is shown and the findings are assessed drawing upon qualitative and quantitative methods making comparisons with previous AR phantom generation applications. The results demonstrate the robustness of the technique for realistic indoor rendering in AR systems

ReLiShaft: realistic real-time light shaft generation taking sky illumination into account

© 2018 The Author(s) Rendering atmospheric phenomena is known to have its basis in the fields of atmospheric optics and meteorology and is increasingly used in games and movies. Although many researchers have focused on generating and enhancing realistic light shafts, there is still room for improvement in terms of both qualification and quantification. In this paper, a new technique, called ReLiShaft, is presented to generate realistic light shafts for outdoor rendering. In the first step, a realistic light shaft with respect to the sun position and sky colour in any specific location, date and time is constructed in real-time. Then, Hemicube visibility-test radiosity is employed to reveal the effect of a generated sky colour on environments. Two different methods are considered for indoor and outdoor rendering, ray marching based on epipolar sampling for indoor environments, and filtering on regular epipolar of z-partitioning for outdoor environments. Shadow maps and shadow volumes are integrated to consider the computational costs. Through this technique, the light shaft colour is adjusted according to the sky colour in any specific location, date and time. The results show different light shaft colours in different times of day in real-time

Real-Time Estimation of Illumination Direction for Augmented Reality with Low-Cost Sensors

In recent years, Augmented Reality has become a very popular topic, both as a research and commercial field. This trend has originated with the use of mobile devices as computational core and display. The appearance of virtual objects and their interaction with the real world is a key element in the success of an Augmented Reality software. A common issue in this type of software is the visual inconsistency between the virtual and real objects due to wrong illumination. Although illumination is a common research topic in Computer Graphics, few studies have been made about real time estimation of illumination direction. In this work we present a low-cost approach to detect the direction of the environment illumination, allowing the illumination of virtual objects according to the real light of the ambient, improving the integration of the scene. Our solution is open-source, based on Arduino hardware and the presented system was developed on Android.XIV Workshop Computación Gráfica, Imágenes y Visualización (WCGIV).Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Real-Time Estimation of Illumination Direction for Augmented Reality with Low-Cost Sensors

In recent years, Augmented Reality has become a very popular topic, both as a research and commercial field. This trend has originated with the use of mobile devices as computational core and display. The appearance of virtual objects and their interaction with the real world is a key element in the success of an Augmented Reality software. A common issue in this type of software is the visual inconsistency between the virtual and real objects due to wrong illumination. Although illumination is a common research topic in Computer Graphics, few studies have been made about real time estimation of illumination direction. In this work we present a low-cost approach to detect the direction of the environment illumination, allowing the illumination of virtual objects according to the real light of the ambient, improving the integration of the scene. Our solution is open-source, based on Arduino hardware and the presented system was developed on Android.XIV Workshop Computación Gráfica, Imágenes y Visualización (WCGIV).Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Fuzzy Soft Shadow in Augmented Reality Systems

Realistic soft shadows in Augmented Reality (AR) is a fascinating topic in computer graphics. Many researchers are involved to have a significant improvement on this demand. In this paper, we have presented a new technique to produce soft shadows using one of the well-known methods in mathematics called Fuzzy Logic. Fuzzy logic is taken into account to generate the realistic soft shadows in AR. The wide light source is split into some parts that each of them plays the rule of a single light source. The desired soft shadow is generated by splitting the wide light source into multiple parts and considering each part as a single light source. The method which we called Fuzzy Soft Shadow is employed in AR to enhance the quality of semi-soft shadows and soft shadows

Displaying Occlusions In Augmented Reality

Augmented reality is used to display a view of physical space with virtual 3D objects inserted. When a virtual object is inserted into view in this manner, it can be difficult to determine whether the object fits in the space. Further, users can lose track of the object if it gets occluded by walls or other objects in the space. Per techniques of this disclosure, object boundaries are displayed to indicate whether the object fits in the space. Further, for objects that are hidden in space are displayed using X-ray and cutout shaders. Still further, it is ensured that object selector/footprint and shadow associated with AR objects are shown in a manner consistent with the object. Showing AR objects in this manner provides a consistent and improved user experience