Museums and the Metaverse: Emerging Technologies to Promote Inclusivity and Engagement

Over the past two decades, museums have increasingly sought to build connections with the community and increase inclusivity of visitors. At the same time, emerging technologies, such as extended reality (XR) and virtual museums (VM) are increasingly adopted to engage with different generational expectations but also for the purposes of supporting inclusivity and neurodiverse populations. First such technologies were adopted to augment exhibitions in the physical museum space for edutainment. Since then, XR has expanded from room-size environments (CAVEs) and augmented exhibitions to the creation of entire virtual museums, such as The Museum of Pure Form and The Virtual Museum of Sculpture. Digital twins of museums are increasingly common, along with UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Such virtual experiences can be leveraged to prepare neurodiverse visitors prior to visiting a museum. This chapter will outline how existing approaches to social stories and sensory maps may be combined with XR experiences to support neurodiverse visitors and their families. While onsite, immersive technologies can be used both for engagement and to provide accommodations for greater inclusivity and diversity

Museums and the Metaverse: Emerging Technologies to Promote Inclusivity and Engagement

Over the past two decades, museums have increasingly sought to build connections with the community and increase inclusivity of visitors. At the same time, emerging technologies, such as extended reality (XR) and virtual museums (VM) are increasingly adopted to engage with different generational expectations but also for the purposes of supporting inclusivity and neurodiverse populations. First such technologies were adopted to augment exhibitions in the physical museum space for edutainment. Since then, XR has expanded from room-size environments (CAVEs) and augmented exhibitions to the creation of entire virtual museums, such as The Museum of Pure Form and The Virtual Museum of Sculpture. Digital twins of museums are increasingly common, along with UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Such virtual experiences can be leveraged to prepare neurodiverse visitors prior to visiting a museum. This chapter will outline how existing approaches to social stories and sensory maps may be combined with XR experiences to support neurodiverse visitors and their families. While onsite, immersive technologies can be used both for engagement and to provide accommodations for greater inclusivity and diversity

Limitations and possibilities of digital restoration techniques using generative AI tools: Reconstituting Antoine François Callet’s Achilles dragging hector’s body past the walls of troy

Digital restoration offers new avenues for conserving historical artworks, yet presents unique challenges. This research delves into the balance between traditional restoration methods and the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools, using Antoine François Callet’s portrayal of Achilles Dragging Hector’s Body Past the Walls of Troy as a case study. The application of Easy Diffusion and Stable Diffusion 2.1 technologies provides insights into AI-driven restoration methods such as inpainting and colorization. Results indicate that while AI can streamline the restoration process, repeated inpainting can compromise the painting’s color quality and detailed features. Furthermore, the AI approach occasionally introduces unintended visual discrepancies, especially with repeated application. With evolving restoration tools, adaptability remains crucial. Integrating both AI and traditional techniques seems promising, though it is essential to maintain the artwork’s inherent authenticity. This study offers valuable perspectives for art historians, conservators, and AI developers, enriching discussions about the potential and pitfalls of AI in art restoration

PIAZZE REALI E PIAZZE VIRTUALI VISUALIZZAZIONE INTERATTIVA DELLA RICOSTRUZIONE VIRTUALE DI PIAZZE FAMOSE COME STRUMENTO DI CONOSCENZA

<p>La piazza è un luogo di incontro, di confronto e di discussione, nel quale si creano nuovi rapporti o si rafforzano i rapporti esistenti tra le persone e il luogo stesso. Muoversi dentro una piazza consente di conoscere ‘fi sicamente’ la realtà nella quale stiamo agendo. La rappresentazione digitale di una piazza obbliga, invece, a dematerializzare la realtà e ad operare in una sua traduzione virtuale che consente di vivere l’esperienza di trovarsi in un luogo pur non essendoci. Tale esperienza non può sostituirsi al rapporto individuale che ciascuno di noi instaura con i luoghi reali, ma permette di ricreare con essi relazioni diverse, in accordo con i nostri sensi o addirittura ‘potenziandoli’, attraverso sensazioni nuove, ma comunque coinvolgenti. Un siffatto approccio può offrire un elevato contributo divulgativo perché può essere arricchito da numerose informazioni, su più livelli di conoscenza, fruibili mentre 'camminiamo' dentro la piazza ricostruita, proponendo dunque una capacità conoscitiva più intuitiva e diretta. Questo articolo si propone di esporre e discutere l’utilità e la fl essibilità di uso delle tecnologie virtuali attraverso la presentazione di una serie di ricostruzioni tridimensionali interattive di famose piazze, effettuate dal Laboratorio di Robotica Percettiva (PERCRO) della Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna di Pisa. Tali ricostruzioni, pur condividendo il medesimo linguaggio digitale, sono state utilizzate per un ampio ventaglio di scopi eterogenei, quali la pianifi cazione urbanistica, la comunicazione culturale, la promozione, l’informazione turistica, la fruizione artistica, nonché la divulgazione storica.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Virtual Square</strong></p><p>Squares  are  places  where  people  meet,  discuss,  confront  each other, where new relationships within the community are created or strengthened. Moving inside a square allows to physically know the reality in which we are acting. The digital representation of a square, instead, forces a dematerialization of the reality and makes us act in a virtual translation, allowing to experience a place with-out actually being there. This experience cannot replace the indi-vidual relationship established with real places, though it allows to create new and different connections with them, in agreement with our senses or even augmenting them through new involving sensa-tions. Such an approach may offer a relevant contribution for communication and dissemination, as it can provide several information on different levels of knowledge, accessible, while we ‘walk’ inside the reconstructed square, in a more direct and intuitive way. This article aims to describe and discuss the usefulness and the fl exibility of virtual technologies through the presentation of a series of 3D reconstructions of famous squares, produced by the Perceptual Ro-botics Laboratory (PERCRO) of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna of Pisa. These reconstructions, although sharing the same digital language, have been used for a wide range of heterogeneous purposes, such as urban planning, cultural communication, promotion, tourist information and education.</p&gt

Digital Twins and Cultural Heritage Preservation: A Case Study of Best Practices and Reproducibility in Chiesa dei SS Apostoli e Biagio

The use of digital twin technologies to preserve cultural heritage has become increasingly common over the past two decades. Evolving from the use of virtual environments (VE) and digital reconstructions that required multiple phases of workflow and multiple software applications and various hardware to output a useable experience to the immediacy of 3D artificial intelligence (AI) generative content and the latest generation of photogrammetric scanning, non-specialists are now able to more easily create digital twins. At the same time, the destruction of cultural heritage has accelerated due to geopolitical instability, seen in examples such as the invasion of Ukraine by Russia (2022). Even with advances in user-friendly and commercially available technologies, digital art history and the digital humanities are in a race against time to train and equip enough individuals onsite to create digital twins before more irreplaceable cultural artifacts and sites are lost to natural disasters, accelerated by climate change, or through armed conflict. However, there remain no international standards for methodological reproducibility and the techniques used currently by many scholars include specialized training and knowledge. As such, this paper presents a case study that addresses reproducibility and explainability in the digital humanities through a detailed workflow of the creation of a digital twin of Chiesa dei SS Apostoli e Biagio in Florence, Italy. A model is presented that is scalable and leverages widely available, user-friendly 360 cameras and photogrammetry with LiDAR to capture cultural heritage sites with best practices on how to quickly and effectively train non-specialists to create site-specific digital twins of a variety of cultural heritage structures

Virtual Reality and Art History: A Case Study of Digital Humanities and Immersive Learning Environments

The potential benefits of integrating immersive realities into traditional humanities curricula have been touted over the last two decades, but budgetary and technical constraints of implementation have limited its adoption. However, recent advances in technology, along with more affordable hardware coupled with more user-friendly interfaces, have seen widespread adoption beyond that of the military and healthcare. In fact, higher education institutions are poised to adopt VR on a broader scale to enhance learning with virtual environments. This study seeks to determine the expectations and results of integrating virtual reality into coursework with students and faculty in Art History. The study surveyed students, first to ascertain the prevalence and familiarity of immersive reality technologies, as well as the perceived benefit of integration into curriculum. Next, surveys collected data on student experience relating to virtual reality assignments integrated into coursework for both face-to-face and online learners. The results provide a model for other institutions for a variety of disciplines to reinforce outcomes through strategic use of the technology

Individuality and the collective in AI agents: Explorations of shared consciousness and digital homunculi in the metaverse for cultural heritage

The confluence of extended reality (XR) technologies, including augmented and virtual reality, with large language models (LLM) marks a significant advancement in the field of digital humanities, opening uncharted avenues for the representation of cultural heritage within the burgeoning metaverse. This paper undertakes an examination of the potentialities and intricacies of such a convergence, focusing particularly on the creation of digital homunculi or changelings. These virtual beings, remarkable for their sentience and individuality, are also part of a collective consciousness, a notion explored through a thematic comparison in science fiction with the Borg and the Changelings in the Star Trek universe. Such a comparison offers a metaphorical framework for discussing complex phenomena such as shared consciousness and individuality, illuminating their bearing on perceptions of self and awareness. Further, the paper considers the ethical implications of these concepts, including potential loss of individuality and the challenges inherent to accurate representation of historical figures and cultures. The latter necessitates collaboration with cultural experts, underscoring the intersectionality of technological innovation and cultural sensitivity. Ultimately, this chapter contributes to a deeper understanding of the technical aspects of integrating large language models with immersive technologies and situates these developments within a nuanced cultural and ethical discourse. By offering a comprehensive overview and proposing clear recommendations, the paper lays the groundwork for future research and development in the application of these technologies within the unique context of cultural heritage representation in the metaverse

Sonic Sculptural Staircase: An Investigation of Highly Immersive And World Aware Augmented Reality In Augmented Sculptural Staircase Experience

Modern head-mounted augmented reality technology has now ad- vanced to the level that it can be said to enable a Highly Immersive and World Aware Augmented Reality (HIWAAR) experience. Critical to pro- viding such an experience is the ability of some modern systems, like the Microsoft HoloLens (HLs), to capture video information of the sur- rounding physical environment in real time and to build models of that environment which enable a user to be “world aware” in the augmented world. At the same time, such systems can provide graphical images and audio that surround and augment the user experience in a highly immersive manner. Works that utilise such HIWAAR technology for the creation of augmented art experience have been claimed to be effective in activating users’ engagement and enhancing art appreciation. However, few works have specifically considered how augmented art experiences should be designed and fewer have provided rigorous evaluations of the effectiveness of such experiences. This thesis presents the Sonic Sculptural Staircase (SSS), a HIWAAR installation that explores the use of visual overlays, sound and interaction using Microsoft HoloLens Gen 2nd (HL-2) in providing an augmented sculptural staircase appreciation experience. The thesis commences using interviews with art professionals seeking for design inspirations for the HIWAAR augmented sculpture (or sculp- tural elements) experience. Drawing on results from these interviews, the SSS was designed and developed. Two different experience conditions, the informational experience and the experiential experience, are introduced to reflect on the use of visual overlays, sound and interaction in providing an augmented sculptural staircase appreciation experience. User eval- uations are then described to quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate the functionality and effectiveness of SSS in providing such rewarding experience. Results from user evaluation show that the SSS presented a pleasant augmented sculptural staircase appreciation experience along with enhanced awareness of the physical piece, on both experience con- ditions over time. However, whether there is a distinctness between the informational and the experiential experience with aspects of visual over- lays, sound and interaction in such rewarding experience requires further investigation. Furthermore, preliminary evidence from follow-up studies appear to show that the experiential experience has a more lasting impact than the informational experience on the way that participants view the sculptural staircase in their daily lives. Overall, this work has illustrated a novel use of HIWAAR system with aspects of visual overlays, sound and interaction in realising highly immersive and rewarding augmented sculptural staircase appreciation experience. Positive results revealed from user evaluations preliminarily support the effectiveness of utilising such technology for the design of other augmented art experiences for relevant communities

Gamification of Education and Learning: Heuristic Elements, Player Types, and Learning Outcomes for Art History Games

The technology of virtual reality (VR) and the gamification of education and learning has had proven educational benefits, especially in secondary education. However, there remains little to no research on the heuristic elements and mechanics that contribute to learning at the postsecondary level of education. Most research conducted has been refined to science programs, but even in these instances, a study of the effects and interests of different demographics has yet to be considered. Given the visual nature of how the discipline of art history has traditionally been taught, there are a number of virtual reality (VR) applications to assist instructors in the field better engage students in immersive environments to provide a more accurate understanding of subjects covered. In order to capitalize on the strengths of the new digital medium, including immersion, engagement, and presence, the end user needs to be considered. This heuristic study investigates the different experiences, preferences, learning styles, and expectations relating to educational gaming of art history students at a private, Midwestern college. Results demonstrate that effective game design and development need consider the target audience to optimize user experience and learning outcomes