Immersia, an open immersive infrastructure: doing archaeology in virtual reality (original) (raw)
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Travels through the imagination: Future visions of VR and related technologies
YVR2001, December, 2001
The research question driving my own research is the following: Which varying modes of interactivity add to the experienced significance of and engagement in, a virtual tourist environment? Do inbuilt evaluation mechanisms compare favorably to more traditional feedback mechanisms when gauging engagement in an interactive virtual environment? This research question is a direct result of an extended analysis as to which factors are hindering virtual environments. In this paper I argue that VR (or, as I refer to it here, Virtual Environments), before it can go forwards, needs to address several issues that have prevented widespread dissemination of its potential. The issues that needs to be addressed are: ¨ Accessibility, which includes terminology and classification, and collaboration between related disciplines especially between designers and those that evaluate the psychological effects of virtual presence on the participants. ¨ Interactivity, between the virtual actor, environment, object and task; social interaction; and messaging between actors. ¨ Dynamic histories, with annotation; as well as augmentation between fact fiction and imagination. After discussing what I think needs to be done, the paper ends by describing a virtual environment prototype using inbuilt evaluation mechanisms to gauge the effect of various forms of interactivity on user engagement. The findings will hopefully be of particular interest to virtual heritage, cultural tourism, and archaeological or even anthropological digital simulations.
Virtual Archaeology Review, 2012
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".
Augmenting immersion: The implementation of the real world in virtual reality
2016
The last few decades have seen the rise of a new archaeology characterized by a propensity for high realism in the representation of the past under the form of virtual reconstructions, which allow the viewer to have an immersive experience. Our project proposes the insertion of experiments performed in real reconstructed contexts inside complex 3D virtual reconstructions, thus augmenting the degree of " reality " and of immersion. The result is a creative mix of virtual reality and reality (mixed reality) under the form of " windows of immersion " , which can stimulate the archaeological imagination.
Abstract—This paper describes the Virtual Reality Group of
2016
Tecgraf/PUC-Rio and some of its research and development activities in the areas of virtual and augmented reality, 3D user interaction and collaborative systems. The main projects of the group are related to the oil & gas industry, and include the development of real-time photorealist interaction and visualization tools for virtual environments, which support programs for the representation and inspection of engineering models as well as for the representation of natural models such as terrains and oil reservoirs. Keywords- virtual reality,3D user interaction,augmented reality
New Methods of Interaction in Virtual Reality for the Study of Archaeological Data
One of the biggest challenges that the analysis of archaeological data in virtual reality presents is the interaction. Within the project of 3D reconstruction of Kaulonia archaeological site in Monasterace (Italy), developers had to deal with the need to implement an interface system inside the application without using external devices, in order to facilitate archaeologists in the data consultation. A study about a system of movement and interaction with objects in the environment was conducted to create an interface for interaction based on look. Subsequently, a method of interaction was developed by eliminating the problem of performing gestures and removing the entire "Learning Step" by users, so that it is possible to select and deselect elements, to move around in and rotate the view directly with the movement of the head. As for the selection of the various elements within the application, a "cursor" specially implemented allows users to interact with the interactive elements: whenever the user sets a hotspot (point of interest) a pull switch is activated. Within the application, it is possible to visualize a general overview of the excavation seen from above and to view the 3D models in the same spot where they were originally found: together with them, a brief historical description that contextualizes the object can be displayed. A continuous progress of the study is allowing to explore new frontiers of digital data analysis in archaeology.
International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XL-5. 3D-Arch 2015. 3D Virtual Reconstruction and Visualization of Complex Architectures (XL-5/W4) 25–27 February 2015, Avila, Spain, 2015
The paper illustrates the project of an interdisciplinary team composed of archaeologists and researchers of the Scuola Normale Superiore and the University of Pisa. The synergy between these Centres has recently allowed for a more articulated 3D simulation of the agora of Segesta. Here, the archaeological excavations have brought to light the remains of a huge public building (stoa) of the Late-Hellenistic Period. Computer graphics and image-based modeling have been used to monitor, document and record the different phases of the excavation activity (layers, findings, wall structures) and to create a 3D model of the whole site. In order to increase as much as possible the level of interaction, all the models can be managed by an application specially designed for an immersive virtual environment (CAVE-like system). By using hands tracking sensor (Leap) in a non-standard way, the application allows for a completely hand-free interaction with the simulation of the agora of Segesta and the different phases of the fieldwork activities. More specifically, the operator can use simple hand gestures to activate a natural interface, scroll and visualize the perfectly overlapped models of the archaeological layers, pop up the models of single meaningful objects discovered during the excavation, and obtain all the relative metadata (stored in a dedicated server) which are visualizable on external devices (e.g. tablets or monitors) without further wearable devices. All these functions are contextualized within the whole simulation of the agora, so that it is possible to verify old interpretations and enhance new ones in real-time, simulating within the CAVE the whole archaeological investigation, going over the different phases of the excavation in a more rapid way, getting information which could have been ignored during the fieldwork, and verifying, even ex-post, issues not correctly documented during the fieldwork. The opportunity to physically interact with the 3D model of the agora increases drastically the level of affordance between operator and 3D simulation, and to verify with a completely new approach, issues which can be hardly investigated by using traditional 2D documentation.
Surround-screen projection-based virtual reality: the design and implementation of the CAVE
1993
Several common systems satisfy some but not all of the VR definition above. Flight simulators provide vehicle tracking, not head tracking, and do not generally operate in binocular stereo. Omnimax theaters give a large angle of view [8], occasionally in stereo, but are not interactive. Head-tracked monitors [4][6] provide all but a large angle of view. Head-mounted displays (HMD) [13] and BOOMs [9] use motion of the actual display screens to achieve VR by our definition. Correct projection of the imagery on large screens can also create a VR experience, this being the subject of this paper. This paper describes the CAVE (CAVE Automatic Virtual Environment) virtual reality/scientific visualization system in detail and demonstrates that projection technology applied to virtual-reality goals achieves a system that matches the quality of workstation screens in terms of resolution, color, and flicker-free stereo. In addition, this format helps reduce the effect of common tracking and system latency errors. The off-axis perspective projection techniques we use are shown to be simple and straightforward. Our techniques for doing multi-screen stereo vision are enumerated, and design barriers, past and current, are described. Advantages and disadvantages of the projection paradigm are discussed, with an analysis of the effect of tracking noise and delay on the user. Successive refinement, a necessary tool for scientific visualization, is developed in the virtual reality context. The use of the CAVE as a one-to-many presentation device at SIGGRAPH '92 and Supercomputing '92 for computational science data is also mentioned.