Story guided virtual environments in educational applications

Over the last few years we have witnessed a rapid development and popularisation of serious gaming. This field is becoming approved in not only education, science, medicine, religion or engineering, but also in the area of cultural heritage through serious heritage games. This can be utilised for virtual reconstructions and virtual museums and possibly used for education in the form of edutainment, comprising various techniques, such as storytelling, visual expression of information, interactivity and entertainment [19]. This paper demonstrates a new concept of using story guided virtual environments for cultural heritage virtual reconstruction, with live virtual guides in an interactive Flash format. First we compare the implementations of the same environments in x3D and Flash and then we extend the project with digital storytelling, where a user is guided through the whole application using both narrative, non-interactive, movie-like elements and interactive exploration of the virtual environment. The introduced results can be easily adopted for serious games development

Interactive digital storytelling in the Sarajevo survival tools virtual environment

Virtual museums enable Internet users to explore museum collections online. The question is how to enhance the viewer's experience and learning in such environments. In the Sarajevo Survival Tools virtual museum we introduced a new concept of interactive digital storytelling that will enable the visitors to explore the virtual exhibits - objects from the siege of Sarajevo - guided by a digital story. This way the virtual museum visitors will learn about the context of the displayed objects and be motivated to explore all of them. In this paper we present the virtual environment we developed and our experience with it. The results from three empirical studies we conducted, indicate the positive influence of digital storytelling and sound effects on visitors' perceptual response, resulting in increased motivation and enjoyment, and more effective information conveyance

The Use of Live Virtual Guides in Educational Applications

—Serious games are becoming increasingly popular in education, science, medicine, religion, engineering, and some other fields. Additionally, serious heritage games, including virtual reconstructions and museums, provide a good environment for a synthesis of serious games and cultural heritage. This may be used for education in the form of edutainment, comprising various techniques, such as storytelling, visual expression of information, interactivity and entertainment [1]. This paper demonstrates a new concept of using live virtual guides in a Flash environment for cultural heritage virtual reconstruction. A pilot user study compares another approach using the X3D environment, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of our concept. The introduced results can be easily adopted for serious games development

VR Video Storytelling for Intangible Cultural Heritage Preservation.

Interactive digital storytelling has become a popular method for virtual cultural heritage presentations. Combinations of stories and 3D virtual reconstructions are attractive for the audience and have high edutainment values. In this paper we investigate if 360◦ VR videos further contribute to user immersion in the preservation of intangible cultural heritage. It describes a case study of the Mostar bridge diving project, aimed to present and preserve the bridge diving tradition from the Old Bridge in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is a virtual reality application which enables the user to virtually jump off the bridge after watching 360◦ video stories about its history and the bridge diving tradition and upon successfully completing the quiz evaluation of the knowledge gained from the stories. The user experience evaluation study shows that our method was successful in preserving a form of intangible heritage and posits suggestions that can be used in developing an intangible heritage preservation framework

VIRTUAL TOUR IN THE SUNKEN “VILLA CON INGRESSO A PROTIRO” WITHIN THE UNDERWATER ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK OF BAIAE

The paper presents the application of some Virtual Reality technologies developed in the Horizon 2020 i-MARECulture project to the case study of the sunken “Villa con ingresso a protiro”, dated around the II century AD, and located in the Marine Protected Area - Underwater Park of Baiae (Naples).The i-MARECulture project (www.imareculture.eu), in fact, aims to improve the public awareness about the underwater cultural heritage by developing new tool and techniques that take advantage of the virtual reality technologies to allow the general public to explore the archaeological remains outside of the submerged environment.To this end, the paper details the techniques and methods adopted for the development of an immersive virtual tour that allow users to explore, through a storytelling experience, a virtual replica and a 3D hypothetical reconstruction of the complex of the “Villa con ingresso a protiro”.</p

VIRTUAL MUSEUM APPLICATIONS AND THEIR PUBLIC PERCEPTION IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Bosnia and Herzegovina always has been a place where the East meets the West. Over 1000 years, different cultures, religions and civilizations have left their remains in this small country in Western Balkans. Despite all wars and tragic destructions, today in the heart of Sarajevo one can find mosques, Catholic and Orthodox churches and Jewish synagogues next to each other and people of different nations and religions living together in mutual respect and friendship. Multiethnic spirit of Bosnia and Herzegovina lives through its cultural heritage. Therefore our task is to ensure its presentation and preservation using Information and Communications Technologies (ICT). So far researchers have achieved significant results by creating several virtual museums. In this paper we will present the Museum of Bosnian Traditional Objects, Digital Catalogue of Stecaks and the Virtual Museum of Sarajevo Assassination, giving an overview of the process of creating virtual environments from multiple data sources based on various 3D digitization technologies: some based on traditional 3D modeling, other based on laser scanning or photogrametric techniques

TOWARDS OPTIMAL SPECTRAL AND SPATIAL DOCUMENTATION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE. COSCH &ndash; AN INTERDISCIPLINARY ACTION IN THE COST FRAMEWORK

This paper introduces the aims and early activities of Colour and Space in Cultural Heritage (COSCH), an interdisciplinary European network of experts in the latest optical measuring techniques and electronic imaging applied to documentation of artefacts. COSCH is a forum open to organisations, institutions and companies interested in collaboration within the emerging field of precise spectral and spatial imaging techniques, in physical and chemical sciences applied to cultural heritage objects, as well as in research and applications to conservation and art-historical analysis of such objects. COSCH started in November 2012. Funded by COST, an intergovernmental framework for European Cooperation in Science and Technology, COSCH networking activities enable knowledge exchange and coordination of nationally-funded research on a European level with occasional contribution of experts from other countries. Funding has been made available for four years (2012&ndash;2016). Participation is open to researchers across a wide range of disciplines, including computer scientists and museum professionals, art historians and academics in heritage-related fields. COSCH is a trans-domain Action (TD1201) of the COST Domain Materials, Physics and Nanosciences (MPNS) which facilitates and promotes innovation in material science. The work of COSCH is defined in the Memorandum of Understanding between the COST Office and the Chairman of COSCH. The Memorandum is available from http://www.cost.eu/domains_actions/mpns/Actions/TD1201 alongside the latest progress report and other documents. The scientific work draws on earlier and current research of the participants and is organised around the following areas: spectral and spatial object documentation; algorithms and procedures; analysis and restoration of surfaces and objects of material culture; visualisation of cultural heritage objects and its dissemination. Up-to-date information about COSCH activities, including its scientific and training programmes, abstracts of presentations and a list of participants, can all be found on the Action website at http://www.cosch.info

Towards an optimal spectral and spatial documentation of our cultural heritage - COSCH, an action in the frame of COST

http://cipa.icomos.org/index.php?id=88&L=fdylxnxfjwfleInternational audienc