VIRTUAL HERITAGE
marcello@sssup.it
Overview
Virtual Heritage is a term being coined for the use of Virtual Environments and other digital techniques to reconstruct and preserve historical monuments and artifacts. Its applications are numerous, starting from conservation (virtual reconstructions of monuments or specimen altered or destroyed by time or human actions) to promotion (through a compelling and interactive technology), to fruition (virtual expositions difficult or impossible to actually realize) to education and divulgation (acting as a powerful storytelling mean).
In latest years PERCRO developed a large numbers of applications related to Virtual Heritage, making use of different VR hardware solutions, involving immersive environments and high-levels of user interaction.
Besides EU projects elsewhere described, like PUREFORM and CREATE, a number of local projects have been carried out which are hereby described.
All the described projects, with the exception of non-interactive movies, have been developed using the XVR technology.
| The Museum of Pure Form | |
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The
Museum of Pure Form is a virtual reality system where visitors can
interact with digital models of sculptures through the sense of touch. The project, ended in 2003, aimed at the creation of a virtual gallery of digital sculptures where to carry out the exploration of new paradigms of fruition by visual and tactile interaction with the sculptures, allowing also visually impaired users to access artworks. The project provided also a web site with structured documents including multimedia data. Several permanent installations have been realized across Europe, notably in England, Spain and Sweden. A permanent installation is hosted at Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, in Pisa. More here or on the MPF website. |
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Aims: Preservation, Fruition, Documentation |
Technologies: Haptics, CAVE, 3D Scan, Interactive Web 3D |
| The Virtual Museum of Sculpture of Pietrasanta | |
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This system
extends the methodology applied in the MPF to a similar context but
with its own peculiarities.
A permanent installation is hosted at Associazione
Industriali, in Pietrasanta (LU).The result is the installation of a Virtual Museum which hosts sculptures scattered all around the world in the same shared space (a stylized square resembling the Cathedral Square of Pietrasanta, the “city of marble and artists” where the sculptures were realized. The virtual gallery is presented on an extra-wide stereoscopic cylindrical screen (ratio 12:3) which allows for a panoramic and immersive exploration of the virtual environment. More here. Video here. |
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Aims: Preservation, Fruition, Divulgation |
Technologies: Panoramic Powerwall, 3D Scan |
| Monumento al Descamisado | |
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This project
(ongoing) aims to expand the Virtual Museum of Sculpture of Pietrasanta
with the insertions of new contents, in particular related to one of
the most famous local artists, Leone Tommasi, operating in the middle
of XX century. The reconstructed artwork is a monument, commissioned by
the former Argentina president Peron and never realized, which was to
be one of the greatest in the world, rivaling the Statue of Liberty and
the Christ the Redeemer in Rio. Video here. |
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Aims: Preservation, Fruition, Divulgation |
Technologies: Panoramic Powerwall, 3D Scan |
| Artistic Craftsmanship in Lucchesia | |
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The idea of creating a multimedia platform to communicate the Artistic Craftsmanship in Lucchesia was born in order to keep alive activities which have contributed in defining this country in terms of history, culture, peculiarity and quality of its products. Artistic Craftsmanship is considered to all intents and purposes an important part of Cultural Heritage. This platform offers then a contribution to preserve this heritage and its memory, by means of a virtual experience inside the processes and the places where bronze sculptures are made. Users can follow from the beginning how such an artwork is created, dwelling on each step of the creation process and analyzing in details the main points. Video here. |
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Aims: Preservation, Fruition, Edutainment |
Technologies: Interaction, 3D Scan, Multimedia, Video |
| On the tracks of Michelangelo | |
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This project focuses the integration of an educational path describing the historical period related to the presence of Michelangelo in Pietrasanta and to the impulse that this presence gave to the extraction activities aimed to provide the great artist with the valuable marble needed to build the S.Lorenzo church façade, in Florence. By making these somehow misknown historical facts to come out, it is expected, beyond the intrinsic educational value, to stimulate into visitors the desire of personally seeing the described places in such a way to feed novel cultural paths and, consequently, tourist flows. |
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Aims: Fruition, Edutainment |
Technologies: Interaction, 3D Modeling, Multimedia, Video |
| 3D of Piazza dei Miracoli, Pisa | |
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The project aimed
to the creation of an website, subdivided in one section for
professional users and one for general public, hosting a complete
documentary data-base and an interactive VR application enabling the 4D
visit to Piazza.
The website has become an environment for discussion and scientific knowledge dissemination for schools and general public, by means of a multimedia system aimed to safeguard, exploit, manage and provide information about Piazza dei Miracoli (Pisa, Italy) and its monuments. The VR application is hosted on the Piazza website, or accessible in the multimedia room at Museo dell'Opera, Pisa. Video here. |
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Aims: Fruition, Documentation, Divulgation |
Technologies: Interactive Web 3D |
| A virtual travel in the Turandot sets | |
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On the occasion of
the 80th anniversary of the first representation of Giacomo Puccini's
Turandot, a non-interactive Virtual Reality panoramic installation was
realized in the context of the exhibition "Giacomo Puccini e Galileo
Chini: tra musica e favola dipinta", held in Villa Borbone, Torre del
Lago (LU) during summer 2006.
The multimedia installation allowed to "recover and divulgate the fundamental unity of opera elements" (singing, sound and images). The system is composed by a panoramic screen (ratio 12:3) showing a 3D model of the original sets as represented in the original sketches of Galileo Chini, Turandot's scenographer, and by two transparent screens showing holograms-like images of the actors playing the most famous arias. More here (Italian only). Video here. |
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Aims: Fruition, Documentation, Edutainment |
Technologies: Panoramic screen, Transparent screen |
| Camposanto Monumentale | |
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The project
produced a 3D reconstruction of Camposanto
Monumentale (Monumental Cemetery) of Pisa, integrated with a multimedia
database including the documentation historical-conservative of the
structure. Initially conceived and used as a support tool for the
design and the management of the structure restoration, it is today
used not only as a powerful interface to the Information System of
Piazza del Duomo in Pisa but also as a divulgation tool allowing a 4D
interactive visit of the monument, in space and time.
A permanent installation is hosted at Museo delle Sinopie, in Pisa. |
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Aims: Fruition, Documentation, Interface to database, Restoration |
Technologies: Powerwall, Photorealistic interactive rendering |
| Livorno Virtuale | |
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On the occasion of the 400th
anniversary of the foundation of the city of Livorno, a multimedia
exhibition has been held in summer 2007 at Granai di Villa Mimbelli and
at Fortezza Nuova, in Livorno. The exhibition included a virtual
reality stereoscopic installation showing the development of Livorno
starting from its foundation to the XVIII century, with a
photorealistic level of detail for the main urban components. |
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Aims: Fruition, Divulgation |
Technologies: Powerwall, Photorealistic rendering |
| Museo Fattori | |
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The application is
aimed to the interactive navigation in a virtual environment
illustrating life and works of Giovanni Fattori, an Italian
"Macchiaioli" painter.
The virtual environment is a semi-abstract one, where all the components (several platforms, floating above the sea, each one showing a set of sketches, paintings, and other works of the author, connected with bridges that realize a guided path) are 3D models retrieved by pictorial elements extracted from Fattori's paintings. This realize a meta-environment where the artistic elements are, at the same time, container and content. The
application was demonstrated in an exhibit hel at Museo Fattori, in
Villa Mibelli (Livorno) on September 2000.
The
online version is available here.
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Aims: Fruition, Divulgation |
Technologies: Interactive Web 3D, Non-Photorealistic Rendering |
| Museo Virtuale Etrusco | |
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The application
allows to interactively navigate an old etrusk tomb along with several
specimen thereby contained.
Specimen 3D models
were realized using laser scanner technologies and subsequently
simplified using detail recovering techniques in order to be suitable
for real-time rendering whilst preserving their main visual features.
Moreover, the
application also simulate the effects of time, showing how the
accumulation of dust and minor damages alter the appearance of objects.
Video here. |
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Aims: Fruition, Divulgation |
Technologies: Interactive Web 3D, 3D Scan |
| Piero Project | |
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The project was about the 3D reconstruction of the Cappella Maggiore in Arezzo, frescoed by Piero della Francesca. Originally developed by Princeton University using the VRML technology, it was ported to the XVR environemtn in order to allow a better visual realism and interaction, on the occasion of the ECVP 2007-Renaissance Vision Conference held in Arezzo on August 2007. More on the Piero Project at Princeton website. |
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Aims: Dissemination, Documentation, Teaching |
Technologies: Interactive Web 3D |
| MASP 2006 | |
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The project aimed
to interactively visualize a 3D model representing the proposal of
renovation of the architectural complex of Maggiano, Lucca (formerly an
asylum) as resulting from an architecture competition organized in the
framework of a master course.
The installation, exhibited during Spring 2007 at Complesso Monumentale di San Micheletto, Lucca, was composed by a stereo Powerwall and an interaction device used to explore the external and the internal components of the complex. More on
the Masp 2006 website
(Italian only). |
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Aims: Fruition, Urban Planning, , Architectural Walkthrough |
Technologies: Powerwall, Interactive real-time rendering |
| MASP 2007 | |
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The project aimed
to interactively visualize a 3D model representing the proposal of
renovation of the architectural complex of Mercato del Carmine, Lucca
as resulting from an architecture competition organized in the
framework of a master course.
The installation, exhibited during Spring 2008 at Complesso Monumentale di San Micheletto, Lucca, was composed by a stereo Powerwall and an interaction device used to explore the external and the internal components of the complex. |
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Aims: Fruition, Urban Planning, Architectural Walkthrough |
Technologies: Powerwall, Interactive real-time rendering |
| Palazzo Boccella | |
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The project aimed
to interactively visualize a 3D model representing the proposal of
renovation of Palazzo Boccella, an medieval building located in
S.Gennaro (LU). Palazzo Boccella will host a multimedia Museum of the
Territory which will constitute a bridge between ancient traditions and
new technolgogies. The first step has
been to realize an interactve walkthrough in the "future", as the
building is still under heavy renovation, and will be followed by the
actual realization of the Museum.
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Aims: Fruition, Architectural Walkthrough |
Technologies: Powerwall, Interactive real-time rendering |
| Pietra Naturale | |
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This
high-resolution stereoscopic movie has been showed in two exhibits
(Build-Up 2007 in Milan and Marmomacc 2007 in Verona) with a
non-interactive stereo Powerwall.
The virtual environment is inspired to a famous series of De Chirico paintings ("Piazza d'Italia"). Its components are used to illustrate different types and qualities of Italian stones and marbles. |
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Aims: Fruition, Promotion, Advertising |
Technologies: Powerwall, Non-Photorealistic Rendering |
| FIRB Archeologia | |
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The objective of
this project, using the competences of five unities of
complementary researches in a synergy between archaeology and
sciences, has been focused on three central moments of the global
archaeological experience, the micro-relief and intra-stratigrafico,
the extensive monumental relief plane-volumetrico and the virtual
musealization, individualized through three cases of study: the tomb of
Huy at Tebe Ovest, the monumental zone of the temple of Medinet Madi in
the Fayum, both in Egypt, and the site of Khor Rori in Oman.
The results of the different operations of relief on sites and objects related to the different archaeological contexts, have been used for the fruition in a projected virtual environment. |
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Aims: Preservation, Fruition, Documentation |
Technologies: Haptic Interfaces, 3D Scan, Powerwall |
| Rome in Egypt | |
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This project,
funded by the Italian Ministry for University and Research (MIUR) in
2004-2005, aims to provide a repertory of Roman temples in Egypt by
means of a website acting as a multimedia research tool to make
available, thanks to the Internet flexibility, plans, photographs,
drawings, space oriented and navigable maps and links.
The website contains a VR section where it is possible to interactively navigate in a semi-abstract virtual environment composed of a map of the archeological site and several photographs of the same site which are placed onto the map in their correct location, so as to realize an interactive slideshow providing also geographical information. More here. |
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Aims: Fruition, Conservation, Advertising |
Technologies: Web3D, Information Landscape |
| Digital Storytelling in the classroom | |
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In the latest years there is a clear
trend towards creating richer educational opportunities for schools in
order to increase childrens participation. Constructivism and
technology represent an important combination to define innovative
educational courses. Storytelling is the fundamental link to convey the
use of technology in didactic paths purposely conceived and structured
for children, exploiting their natural fondness for using elements of
their everyday culture and communication. Starting from texts and
stories, selected based on their age, children learn how to interpret
and translate into images the content they wish to communicate,
building the storyboard of their digital tale and using their
creativity on texts, images and other components in order to realize a
multimedia application |
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Aims: Edutainment |
Technologies: Digital Storytelling, Interactive Web3D |
| Il Piccolo Principe | |
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Computer-based
applications using visualization, modeling, simulation and 3D graphics
have proved to be powerful tools for teaching many subjects.
In this direction we took care of a project oriented to graphics and
interactivity. We merged children’s creativity with a didactic path
using technology not only to build an edutainment application, but also
to organize a specific educational project protocol, with the final
purpose of creating an interactive narrative application where the
children assumes the role of coauthors.
In fact the
application, inspired to Saint Exupery's Little Prince, makes use of a
virtual environment built based on children drawings and voices.
This application
is part of a series of edutainment products,
including also 3D puzzles and science-games.
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Aims: Edutainment |
Technologies: Interactive Web3D |
| Pencil | |
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This application
has been realized for the Institute and Museum of History of Science of
Florence inside the European Project Pencil. The life of Galileo
Galilei is presented under four different aspects: time, space, people
and instruments. The overall structure of his life is represented in a
semi abstract 3D space using the metaphor of planes connected by
staircases. This space is supported by a database that stores the
entities, their representation and their relationships allowing a
flexible reorganization of the space depending on the content Each
aspect of Galileo’s life is represented by an entity in the space and
it is associated with a detailed description provided by an overlayed
web page. A particular interesting case is the instruments section,
which contains also three-dimensional representations of some of the
them.
More here.
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Aims: Documentation, Divulgation |
Technologies: Interactive Web3D, Information Landscape |
| Information Landscapes | |
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Information
Landscapes are abstract or semi abstract VEs which exploit the 3D space
to map semantic relationships among data into spatial relationship. The
reader virtually moves through passages of texts, which are placed
within a digitally constructed 3D environment. In time ILs evolved into
Multimedia Information Landscapes, which enable exploring different
types of contents (including music, video etc.) using the IL navigation
metaphor. Possible variants regard the metaphor itself (free navigation
vs. guided/semi-guided exploration), the VE authoring method (pre-built
vs. dynamically built), the VE type (abstract vs. realistic).
Several ILs have
been developed at PERCRO, inspired to artworks like Dante's Inferno,
Galileo's Sidereus Nuncius, Saint Exupery's Little Prince and others.
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Aims: Various |
Technologies: Information Landscape |
| Crowd Predictor | |
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The project aims
to investigate the impact of crowds dynamics in the analysis of risks
reduction in emergency circumstances, especially in the case of
well-known sites which are particularly subjected to tourism and,
consequently, extremely crowded. Crowd behavior simulation is used to
plan different routes in order not only to evacuate visitors, which
represent the main priority, but also to evacuate artworks and other
cultural assets (developed in collaboration with IMT Lucca).
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Aims: Urban Planning, Risk Management, Training |
Techonologies: 3D real-time rendering, Virtual Crowds, Behaioural algorithms |
| VICOM | |
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VICOM project aims
to investigate technologies enabling services of Virtual Immersive
Telepresence based on integrated networks of different type (such as
wireless sensors networks, ad-hoc networks, mobile networks etc.).
The project lead
to the development of several functional demonstrators. One of the
realized scenarios deals with telerestoration, which allows to
virtually train restoration operators on digital copies of artworks, by
means of a series of multimodal information (2D/3D images, force
feedback, sounds) which help operators providing information on the
steps to follow to accomplish the desired task.
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Aims: Restoration, Training |
Techonologies: Telepresence, Haptics, Web communication |