A Virtual Holographic Display Case for Museum Installations

Today, it is important in society to make artworks accessible to mass audiences and to widen participation in culture. In such a context, virtual reality is one of the areas of greatest interest: new devices and new techniques are affordable for many users, and virtual and real worlds are often mixed together. In this paper, we propose a "virtual holographic" display, i.e. a stereoscopic virtual reality system that is able to replicate the behavior of a real showcase for exhibitions. It works in a completely virtual manner and it can yield to a new generation of entertainment "holographic" installations. We evaluate such a system through an experimental session with 20 users. In particular, we compare the proposed system, based on a stereoscopic technique (TD3D), with respect to a standard motion parallax technique in terms of the users' perceptual experience

Invasion of the body snatchers: architecture and virtual space

Architecture, in one sense, has become part of the media: it has an aspect which is symbolic and semiotic, which is as ‘real’ in photography, film, television, advertising, computer games and literature as it is in our experience of landscapes, buildings and machines. But, I shall argue that the media, in one sense, have also become part of architecture, they have an aspect which we perceive as continuous with Cartesian space, and through this pseudo-physical presence they help shape and programme the space of habitation

Holography - a critical debate within contemporary visual culture

Preface: This Special Issue attempts to provide a platform for the critical discussion, reflection and analysis of holography, as a process and methodology within the work of creative practitioners. The Issue examines, through the values and vocabulary of artists and curators, how this medium has developed as a considered practice and where pressure can be placed upon the critical principles of this relatively young medium. The participants published here have taken a risk, not only through the public examination of their development, but also by attempting to contextualise the use and display of holography within a contemporary, cultural framework. I want to thank the contributors of this Special Issue, who share my curiosity towards the critical investigation and contextualisation of our work and ideas in the sphere of creative holography

HOLOGRAPHICS: Combining Holograms with Interactive Computer Graphics

Among all imaging techniques that have been invented throughout the last decades, computer graphics is one of the most successful tools today. Many areas in science, entertainment, education, and engineering would be unimaginable without the aid of 2D or 3D computer graphics. The reason for this success story might be its interactivity, which is an important property that is still not provided efficiently by competing technologies – such as holography. While optical holography and digital holography are limited to presenting a non-interactive content, electroholography or computer generated holograms (CGH) facilitate the computer-based generation and display of holograms at interactive rates [2,3,29,30]. Holographic fringes can be computed by either rendering multiple perspective images, then combining them into a stereogram [4], or simulating the optical interference and calculating the interference pattern [5]. Once computed, such a system dynamically visualizes the fringes with a holographic display. Since creating an electrohologram requires processing, transmitting, and storing a massive amount of data, today’s computer technology still sets the limits for electroholography. To overcome some of these performance issues, advanced reduction and compression methods have been developed that create truly interactive electroholograms. Unfortunately, most of these holograms are relatively small, low resolution, and cover only a small color spectrum. However, recent advances in consumer graphics hardware may reveal potential acceleration possibilities that can overcome these limitations [6]. In parallel to the development of computer graphics and despite their non-interactivity, optical and digital holography have created new fields, including interferometry, copy protection, data storage, holographic optical elements, and display holograms. Especially display holography has conquered several application domains. Museum exhibits often use optical holograms because they can present 3D objects with almost no loss in visual quality. In contrast to most stereoscopic or autostereoscopic graphics displays, holographic images can provide all depth cues—perspective, binocular disparity, motion parallax, convergence, and accommodation—and theoretically can be viewed simultaneously from an unlimited number of positions. Displaying artifacts virtually removes the need to build physical replicas of the original objects. In addition, optical holograms can be used to make engineering, medical, dental, archaeological, and other recordings—for teaching, training, experimentation and documentation. Archaeologists, for example, use optical holograms to archive and investigate ancient artifacts [7,8]. Scientists can use hologram copies to perform their research without having access to the original artifacts or settling for inaccurate replicas. Optical holograms can store a massive amount of information on a thin holographic emulsion. This technology can record and reconstruct a 3D scene with almost no loss in quality. Natural color holographic silver halide emulsion with grain sizes of 8nm is today’s state-of-the-art [14]. Today, computer graphics and raster displays offer a megapixel resolution and the interactive rendering of megabytes of data. Optical holograms, however, provide a terapixel resolution and are able to present an information content in the range of terabytes in real-time. Both are dimensions that will not be reached by computer graphics and conventional displays within the next years – even if Moore’s law proves to hold in future. Obviously, one has to make a decision between interactivity and quality when choosing a display technology for a particular application. While some applications require high visual realism and real-time presentation (that cannot be provided by computer graphics), others depend on user interaction (which is not possible with optical and digital holograms). Consequently, holography and computer graphics are being used as tools to solve individual research, engineering, and presentation problems within several domains. Up until today, however, these tools have been applied separately. The intention of the project which is summarized in this chapter is to combine both technologies to create a powerful tool for science, industry and education. This has been referred to as HoloGraphics. Several possibilities have been investigated that allow merging computer generated graphics and holograms [1]. The goal is to combine the advantages of conventional holograms (i.e. extremely high visual quality and realism, support for all depth queues and for multiple observers at no computational cost, space efficiency, etc.) with the advantages of today’s computer graphics capabilities (i.e. interactivity, real-time rendering, simulation and animation, stereoscopic and autostereoscopic presentation, etc.). The results of these investigations are presented in this chapter

Chapter Raccontare i reperti archeologici: un video olografico per la stele di “Auvele Feluske’’

The 43rd UID conference, held in Genova, takes up the theme of ‘Dialogues’ as practice and debate on many fundamental topics in our social life, especially in these complex and not yet resolved times. The city of Genova offers the opportunity to ponder on the value of comparison and on the possibilities for the community, naturally focused on the aspects that concern us, as professors, researchers, disseminators of knowledge, or on all the possibile meanings of the discipline of representation and its dialogue with ‘others’, which we have broadly catalogued in three macro areas: History, Semiotics, Science / Technology. Therefore, “dialogue” as a profitable exchange based on a common language, without which it is impossible to comprehend and understand one another; and the graphic sign that connotes the conference is the precise transcription of this concept: the title ‘translated’ into signs, derived from the visual alphabet designed for the visual identity of the UID since 2017. There are many topics which refer to three macro sessions: - Witnessing (signs and history) - Communicating (signs and semiotics) - Experimenting (signs and sciences) Thanks to the different points of view, an exceptional resource of our disciplinary area, we want to try to outline the prevailing theoretical-operational synergies, the collaborative lines of an instrumental nature, the recent updates of the repertoires of images that attest and nourish the relations among representation, history, semiotics, sciences

Temporal and Spatial Coherence: chronological and affective narrative within holographic and lenticular space.

The thesis for this practice-based study maintains that the Z and X axes of lenticular and holographic space can be used to store images chronologically, providing an audience with a new experience with affective and authentic impact. My contribution to knowledge has been to create a new element to the lenticular, analogue and digitally animated holographic artform. My research presents my family’s archival material – photographs, film, text and objects – in a sequential order within the Z and X axes of holographic space, creating an animated four-dimensional (4-D) family album in which my ancestors recede into holographic space and members of the current generation float in front of the surface of the media. Audience experience of the artwork has been gathered and evaluated, providing evidence of the research study’s contribution to knowledge.University of Southampto

Mixed Reality’s Ability To Craft And Establish An Experience Of Space

Mixed Reality, when integrated into architecture, will enable open spaces and the perception of the built environment to change rapidly with little physical fabrication. As architects, we design with a desired experience of space in mind and don’t typically design with a rapidly changing built environment to meet a fluctuating programmatic demand. Theater Program however, often requires such rapid changes to the perceived environment, that is the stage, and is an activator of social interaction based on a shared experience of the performances. What would be the architectural implications if we were to integrate mixed reality as a factor of the built environment? Is mixed reality technology even able to create an altered experience of space? To help answer this question the research conducted thorough investigation of phenomenological relations and studies and testing using the Microsoft HoloLens was conducted to simulate or verify the relations and studies. As a final output, Theater with Mixed Reality integrated into the design process as a key deciding design factor will be the main programmatic research and output of this project postulating both a built environment and flexible use space as possible means to redefine the architectural definition as we currently know as a Theatre

From Immersion’s Bleeding Edge to the Augmented Telegrapher: A Method for Creating Mixed Reality Games for Museum and Heritage Contexts

Immersive technologies can be used to broaden the possibilities of storytelling in heritage contexts, to enrich the ways in which museum collections are interpreted, and to facilitate more active engagement with history. To this end, as part of the United Kingdom's Industrial Strategy, new models, methods, and workflows are being developed to help realise the value of such technologies across the country. However, prior art shows that immersive technologies present particular challenges with respect to usability, uptake, on-boarding, sustainability, and authenticity. Towards addressing these challenges, a programme of action research has been established across a series of museums in Cornwall. Focusing upon the Augmented Telegrapher at Porthcurno Telegraph Museum, a co-designed social escape room experience that utilises the Microsoft HoloLens to simulate a telegraphy training exercise from World War 2, this article addresses what partnerships with smaller, rural establishments need to effectively realise the value of immersive technologies. Using the work of Erik Champion as a critical lens, the article shows how an iterative constructivist approach leveraging game design principles can underpin success. This is distilled into a set of recommended interaction blueprints and transdisciplinary working practices that will be of interest to curators, researchers, and serious game developers