Natural interaction in Virtual Environments for Cultural Heritage: Giotto in 3D and Etruscanning study cases

[EN] A basic limit of most of VR applications created by the scientific community and reproducing cultural sites or artefacts is that they do not fire up the attention of public, in comparison with the great potentialities of VR system for cultural transmission: they are often lacking in emotional storytelling and difficult to manage. An important factor is the need of more natural and simple interfaces, especially for applications hosted inside museums. Starting from our experience in this domain, we propose new metaphors of narration and paradigm of interaction based on natural interfaces (body movements), presenting three study cases: “The Rule confirmation: virtual experience among Giotto's characters”, “Etruscanning3D”, “Virtual Exploration of the ancient Pharmacy of S. Maria della Scaletta Hospital at Imola”.[ES] Un límite básico de la mayoría de las aplicaciones de realidad virtual creadas por la comunidad científica que reproducen sitios culturales o artefactos es que no logran activar la atención del público, en contraposición y contraste con las grandes potencialidades que ofrecen los sistemas de RV para la transmisión cultural. A menudo estas aplicaciones carecen de una narración emocional y son difíciles de manejar. Un factor importante a tener en cuenta es la necesidad de generar interfaces más naturales y sencillos, especialmente para las aplicaciones alojadas en el interior de los museos. A partir de nuestra experiencia en este campo, se proponen nuevas metáforas de narración y paradigmas de interacción basados en interfaces naturales (movimientos corporales). Para ello se presentan tres casos de estudio:“La confirmación de la regla: experiencia virtual entre los personajes de Giotto”, “Etruscanning3D”, y “Exploración Virtual de la antigua Farmacia del hospital de S. Maria della ScaletPietroni, E.; Rufa, C. (2012). Natural interaction in Virtual Environments for Cultural Heritage: Giotto in 3D and Etruscanning study cases. Virtual Archaeology Review. 3(7):86-91. https://doi.org/10.4995/var.2012.4394OJS869137ALISI T., DEL BIMBO A., VALLI A. (2005): "Natural interfaces to enhance visitors' experiences", IEE Multimedia, vol. 12, nº 3.ANTINUCCI, F. (2004): Comunicare il museo, Laterza, Roma.ANNUNZIATO, M., BONINI, E., PIERUCCI, P., PIETRONI, E. (2008): "Cultural mirrors: an epistemological approach to artificial life for cultural heritage communication", in Digital Media and its Applications in Cultural Heritage, edited by Jamal Al-Qawasmi, Michele A. Chiuni, sabry El-Hakim, pp. 219- 135.BASILE, G. (Ed.) (2010): I colori di Giotto. La Basilica di Assisi: restauro e restituzione virtuale, Silvana Editore, Milano.BATESON, G. (1972): Steps to Ecology of Mind, San Francisco: Chandler Press.BATESON, G. (1979): Mind and Nature: a necessary unit, New York: Dutton.CANTONI, V., CELLARIO, M., PORTA, M. (2004): "Perspectives and challenges in e-learning: towards natural interaction paradigms", in Journal of Visual Languages & Computing, Volume 15, Issue 5, pp. 333- 345. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvlc.2003.10.002CASTELLANO, G., BRESIN, R., CAMURRI, A., VOLPE, G. (2007): "Expressive control of music and visual media by full-body movement", in Proceedings of the Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME07), New York, NY, USA http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1279740.1279829CASTELLANO, G., VILLALBA, S.D., CAMURRI, A. (2007): "Recognising Human Emotions from Body Movement and Gesture Dynamcs", in Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction, Lisbon September.FORTE, M., PIETRONI, E., RUFA, C. (2002): "Musealising the Virtual: The Virtual Reality Project of the Scrovegni Chapel of Padua, in VSMM Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Virtual Systems and Multimedia-"Creative and Digital Culture", pp 43-52.FORTE, M. (ed.) (2008): La Villa di Livia, un percorso di ricerca di archeologia virtuale, ed. Erma di Bretschneider, Roma.HUPPERETZ, W., PIETRONI, E., PLETINCKX, D., SANNIBALE, M. (2011): "The Regolini Galassi Tomb revisited. 3D reconstruction as a research instrument", in Etruscans, eminet women and powerful men, edited by Patricia S. Lulof, Iefke van Kampen, ed. W Books, pp. 172-176.MELLET-D'HUART, D. (2006): "A Model of (En)Action to approach Embodiment: A Cornerstone for the Design of Virtual Environments for Learning", in WIN W. & HEDLEY N., Eds. Journal of Virtual reality, special issue on education. Springer London. Volume 10, Numbers 3-4 / December, 2006, pp. 253-269. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10055-006-0038-2PIETRONI, E., ANTINUCCI, F. (2010): " The Approval of the Franciscan Rule". Virtual Experience among the Characters of Giotto's Work", in Proceedings of the 11th International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Cultural Heritage VAST (2010), edited by A. Artusi, M. Joly- Parvex,G. Lucet, A. Ribes, and D. Pitzalis.RYAN, M.L. (2001): "Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity" in Literature and Electronic Media, Baltimore and London, Johns Hopkins University press, HB, pp. 399.VARELA, F., THOMPSON, E. - ROSCH, E. (1991): "The Embodied Mind. Cognitive Science and Human Experience", MIT Press, Cambridge. 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Interacting with virtual reconstructions in museums: The etruscanning project

Starting from our experience in this domain, we discuss some fundamental concepts about the potentialities of the virtual reconstructions of cultural sites inside museums, with a specific focus on the communication needs, the design, the combination of media, the interaction interfaces, and the embodiment. We conceive a virtual reconstruction as a digital ecosystem, whose main peculiarities are (1) 3D reconstruction, (2) inclusivity, and (3) interactivity. A virtual reconstruction, in a wide sense, should integrate different levels of visualization, both realistic and symbolic; 3D models; metadata; storytelling; behaviors; and tools of visualization and interaction, in order to "reconstruct" and communicate a cultural context, an ecosystem where all the information is integrated. Despite the great advancements of the last years in the digitization process, computer graphics techniques, and archiving strategies, a basic limit of most of virtual museums is that they do not fire up the attention and the involvement of the public: they lack stimulating activities for visitors, narratives metaphors, and emotional impact. The interaction interfaces are not always simple to understand and to control in a few minutes, and they can generate a sense of frustration that causes users to abandon the application after a short and superficial approach. No gap should exist between knowledge and communication. But how can we translate the complexity of the knowledge in appealing to users and into simple applications that fit with the public's need? This article focuses on some communication rules and criteria that are often considered of minor importance by the researchers working in the field of digital cultural heritage but that are really essential to cultural transmission, especially inside museums. We believe that a stronger collaboration between research institutions and museums and among different disciplines would be recommended. Given this premise, we present the Etruscanning EU project, developed in 2011- 2013, focused on the virtual reconstruction of two important Etruscan tombs of the Orientalizing period: the Regolini-Galassi tomb in Cerveteri and the tomb n.5 of Monte Michele in Veii. © 2014 ACM

Design centrado na actividade: um novo paradigma do utilizador

Dentro da disciplina do Design é cada vez mais relevante encontrar uma metodologia capaz de aproximar os utilizadores dos seus objectos. Esta interacção é um elemento crucial para entender a escolha de uma orientação formal de um sistema projectual. Cabe ao designer encontrar ou adaptar a orientação dos seus processos de forma a acompanhar o caminho do homem e da sociedade ao longo do tempo. O Design Centrado na Actividade tem revelado um paradigma renovado entre o homem e o mundo que o rodeia. Os recentes estudos sobre a actividade humana vieram acrescentar às ideias actuais de Design uma metodologia renovada e capaz de acompanhar as mudanças dos tempos actuais e futuros. Esta metodologia tem como objectivo dar ao utilizador um sentido através da acção, compreendendo todos os elementos e factores que geram essa acção. Esta dissertação pretende ter um sentido expositivo e crítico dos principais elementos desta metodologia. Embora seja uma metodologia em crescendo, é essencial nesta fase fornecer ao Design e ao designer um ponto crítico de partida e de conteúdo teórico não só sobre o Design Centrado na Actividade mas também de todas as disciplinas que o envolve.Within the discipline of design it’s increasingly important to find a methodology able to bring users closer to their objects. The interaction is crucial to understand the choice of a formal orientation of a project-oriented system. It is up to the designers to find or adapt the orientation of their processes in order to follow the path of man and society over time. Activity-centered Design has revealed a new paradigm between man and the world around him. Recent studies on human activities added, to the current thinking of a design methodology, a renewed view that is able to keep up with changing times , both present and future. This methodology aims to provide users with a sense of action, designing the elements and factors that generate action. This dissertation aims to have an expository and critical sense of the main elements of this methodology. Although a growing methodology, it is essential at this stage to provide a starting point to design and designers for critical and theoretical content, not only on the Activity-centered Design but also in all the disciplines involved

Designing for the Cooperative Use of Multi-user, Multi-device Museum Exhibits.

This work explores software-based museum exhibits that allow groups of visitors to employ their own personal mobile devices as impromptu user interfaces to the exhibits. Personal devices commandeered into service in this fashion are dubbed Opportunistic User Interfaces (O-UIs). Because visitors usually prefer to engage in shared learning experiences, emphasis is placed on how to design software interfaces to support collaborative learning. To study the issue, a Design-Based Research approach was taken to construct an externally valid exemplar of this type of exhibit, while also conducting more traditional experiments on specific features of the O-UI design. Three analyses, of – (1) museums as a context, (2) existing computer-based museum exhibits, and (3) computer support of collaborative processes in both work and classroom contexts – produced guidelines that informed the design of the software-based exhibit created as a testbed for O-UI design. The exhibit was refined via extensive formative testing on a museum floor. The experimental phase of this work examined the impact of O-UI design on (1) the visual attention and (2) collaborative learning behaviors of visitors. Specifically, an O-UI design that did not display any graphical output (the “simple” condition) was contrasted against an O-UI design that displayed multi-element, dynamically animated graphics (the “complex” condition). The “complex” O-UIs promoted poor visual attention management, an effect known as the heads-down phenomenon, wherein visitors get so enmeshed with their O-UIs that they miss out on the shared context, to the detriment of group outcomes. Despite this shortcoming, the “complex” O-UIs better promoted goal awareness, on-task interactions between visitors, and equity in participation and performance. The tight output coupling (visitors see only one shared display) of the “simple” O-UI condition promoted emergent competition, and it encouraged some visitors (especially males) to become more engaged than others. Two design recommendations emerge: (1) incorporating devices with private displays (O-UIs with output) as interfaces to a single large display better promotes collaboration (especially equity), and (2) O-UIs with “complex” displays may be used in museum exhibits, but visitors would benefit from mechanisms to encourage them to direct their attention to the shared display periodically.Ph.D.Computer Science & EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61771/1/ltoth_1.pd

Promoting Andean children's learning of science through cultural and digital tools

Conference Theme: To see the world and a grain of sand: Learning across levels of space, time, and scaleIn Peru, there is a large achievement gap in rural schools. In order to overcome this problem, the study aims to design environments that enhance science learning through the integration of ICT with cultural artifacts, respecting the Andean culture and empower rural children to pursue lifelong learning. This investigation employs the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) framework, and the Design-Based Research (DBR) methodology using an iterative process of design, implementation and evaluation of the innovative practice.published_or_final_versio

Multimedia at work: Natural interfaces to enhance visitors' experiences

The authors present a multimedia system that really works in a cultural public space. Indeed, if you go to Florence and visit the museum of Palazzo Medici Riccardi, you might see a queue of worldwide tourists waiting for their turn to play with a digital version of the famous fresco The Journey of the Magi, appearing on two large screens. Visitors stand in front of the screens and point with their hands to the part of the painting they're interested in. Two cameras grab this point and an algorithm calculates the exact part of the painting the person selected. In response to the pointing, an audio response gives information on the subjects or objects. Visitors seem to deeply enjoy their interaction wi th the system, which does feel natural. Visitors wear no special equipment and use no complex hardware; the fresco is extremely well displayed, and typically the information is precise and interesting, with different levels of information available