Virtual Archaeology and museums, an italian perspective (original) (raw)
MUSINT II is part of a more general project on a series of virtual and interactive museums, using traditional and new technologies with the aim of reaching a wider audience. An interdisciplinary methodology provided by the participation of archaeologists, architects/designers and computer scientists makes the project rich in attractive solutions for visitors of different levels. MUSINT II uses a sophisticated structure, a series of 3-dimensional models produced with both photogrammetry and laser scanning. A complex database with many interconnected queries was implemented to make the study of a large number of objects more efficient and to offer truly innovative research responses with effortless data processing. New hyper-realistic techniques are used to best illustrate the reconstruction of buildings, objects and scenes of life. A specific educational section is addressed to young people, with all these new techniques applied in a winning way. The main object of MUSINT II is a specific category of small objects, sealings and seals, coming from the excavations at Haghia Triada carried out by the Italian Archaeological expedition in Crete at the beginning of 1900. Our purpose is to offer a new analytic and, at the same time, synthetic vision, addressed to a wide audience, of the historical and archaeological representation of one of the most important sites of Minoan Crete.
VIRTUAL PAST. INTERACTIVE PRESENTATION OF LATE ROMAN TOWERS (ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM, MILAN ITALY)
Morandi, S. and Tremari, M.: VIRTUAL PAST. INTERACTIVE PRESENTATION OF LATE ROMAN TOWERS (ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM, MILAN ITALY), Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., XLII-2/W11, 887-893, 2019
The work is an analysis of the recording, processing and presentation of the 3D data of two late roman towers inside the area of the Archaeological Museum of Milan, part of the city previously occupied by the Monastery of St. Maurizio and rich of historical and ancient monuments. The aim of this research is to examine the possibilities offered by digital technologies to record and enhance the archaeological heritage and to increase the divulgence and presentation with interactive products.
Studies in Digital Heritage
MUSINT II is part of a bigger project involving a series of virtual and interactive museums, using traditional and new technologies with the aim to reach an enlarged audience. The presence of Archaeologists, Architects/Designers and Computer Scientists ensures an interdisciplinary methodology that makes our project rich of solutions and attractive to different visitors. MUSINT II uses a sophisticated structure, a series of 3 dimensional models produced both with photogrammetry and laser scanner. A complex database with numerous interconnected queries is implemented in order to enhance the study of a large number of objects giving really innovatory answers and effortless data processes. New hyper-realistic techniques are used to best illustrate the reconstruction of buildings, objects and scenes of life. A specific educational section is directed to young people where all these new techniques are applied in a winning way. The main object of MUSINT II consists in a specific category...
Building archaeological museums as protagonists of Virtual reality
Acta Terrae Septemcastrensis 9, “Lucian Blaga” University - IPCTE, Sibiu, 2010
How to migrate high motivated museum institutions to virtual museums online, even if they are affected by inadequate ICT competences, low Web presence and restricted financial resources? The article discusses the model-experience of the Virtual Museum of European roots realized by the F-MU.S.EU.M. Network. It is aimed disseminating toward a wide audience the acknowledgment that a major civilization flourished in Neolithic and Copper Age in Southeastern and Central Europe (the Danube civilization) and documenting how the European matrix is still now in part founded upon it. The partnership of the F-MU.S.EU.M.
November 2011 saw the opening of the exhibition “Archeovirtual” organized by CNR ITABC -Virtual Heritage Lab - and V-MusT Network of Excellence, in Paestum, Italy. The event, that was part of a wider European project focus on virtual museums, turned to be a great opportunity to show many different projects, applications and installations about Virtual Reality and Cultural Heritage. The four-days exhibition was an occasion to get in touch with the newest experiences with virtual reconstructions, 3D models, interactive environments, augmented realities and mobile solutions for cultural contents; at the same time, it was an opportunity for organizers to directly face the audience’s impact towards projects, because of the necessity to investigate more on social and behavioral aspects in order to positively affect the learning benefits of public. So doing, we could build in the future applications much more tailored on the final costumers, closer to their abilities and necessities. During the show four types of investigative tools was implied to evaluate the general visitor’s behavior and the effectiveness of interfaces, understand their expectations and experiences, and obtain a reference grid of values to evaluate if users' experience fit with organizers' ones. The first outcomes said that audience’s impact toward interactive applications seems depending on the capability of technology to be “invisible”; otherwise technology has to assure a wide range of possibilities in content accesses. In definitive, virtual museums need to have an always more integrated approach between cultural contents, interfaces and social and behavioral studies.
3D Virtual Reconstruction and Visualization of Complex Architectures, 2009
The paper concern the experience that was gained in the context of the "Virtual Museum of Iraq" Project, promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and under the scientific supervision by Italian National Research Council. The project is finalized to create a rich website, free to the general public, based on the archaeological collection of the National Museum of Baghdad. The creation of an innovative virtual museum shows the need to explore new digital communication. The principal contribution of Institute for Archaeological and Monumental Heritage (CNR-IBAM) in the Project derive from the need to contextualize objects and monuments on show in the Virtual Museum. For this contextualization two main problems are highlighted and faced: the documentation and the communication of the archaeological sites. The research activity in the project provided an integration between humanistic approaches (archaeological data and historical sources) and recent scientific methodologies. More specifically, the ancient sources and the data from the old excavations are integrated with satellite remote sensing documentation; 3D imagebased modelling techniques (photo-modelling and digital photogrammetry) were used for the communication of archaeological data.
2012 - The Virtual Museum of the Tiber Valley Project
Antonia Arnoldus Huyzendveld, Marco Di Ioia, Daniele Ferdani, Augusto Palombini, Valentina Sanna, Sara Zanni, Eva Pietroni - The Virtual Museum of the Tiber Valley Project
The aim of the Virtual Museum of the Tiber Valley project is the creation of an integrated digital system for the knowledge, valorisation and communication of the cultural landscape, archaeological and naturalistic sites along the Tiber Valley, in the Sabina area between Monte Soratte and the ancient city of Lucus Feroniae (Capena). Virtual reality applications, multimedia contents, together with a web site, are under con struction and they will be accessed inside the museums of the territory and in a central museum in Rome. The different stages of work will cover the building of a geo-spatial archaeological database, the reconstruction of the ancient potential landscape and the creation of virtual models of the major archaeological sites. This paper will focus on the methodologies used and on present and future results.
Development of virtual environments for the museum communication
in Proceedings of the 6th International Congress “Science and Technology for the Safeguard of Cultural Heritage in the Mediterranean Basin” (22nd-25th October 2013, Athens, Greece), vol. III, Roma 2014, pp. 41-49
Despite the large number of monumental tombs discovered over the years in Taranto, only a few among them are open to the public for in situ visits. Actually, in most cases the visit is precluded because the sites are placed below private buildings or urban roads. However, as often happens, they are affected, for various reasons, by another inevitable trouble: the artefacts preserved inside them until the discover, have been subsequently brought into some museums whereas the monumental structures have been restored, in most cases with provisional works, in order to prevent their collapse. The consequence of this moving, is the de-contextualization of the grave goods and the lack of valorisation of monumental archaeological contexts. An effective solution for these issues could be achieved from the use of technologies that allow a virtual enjoyment of these monuments and the virtual set-up of the grave goods in their original contexts. Based on these premises, thanks to the project CNR-IBAM "Marta Racconta. Storie Virtuali di Tesori Nascosti", co-financed by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Puglia, the National ARchaeological Museum of TAranto (MARTA) will be soon equipped with the installation of a Virtual Platform. This will make 'accessible' ancient monuments from the Greek Taras (the ancient Taranto) currently closed to visitors. In particular, three very interesting monuments have been identified in close cooperation with the Superintendent and with the direction of the Museum of Taranto. The first one is the so-called Tomb of the Festoons, that was found in Via Crispi at the beginning of the last century. At present, it is placed inside a private apartment under the ground floor of a building. The second one, called the Hypogeum of the Gorgons, was discovered some years ago in Via Otranto, but it is now placed below a road pavement. The archaeological and archaeometric studies carried out on these monuments made it possible to develop a wide path of knowledge ranging from funerary rituals to construction techniques.
International Journal of Digital Culture and Electronic Tourism, 2008
This paper deals with two, related topics: the acquisition and recovery of information'trapped'in the geometry of an historical artifact; the employment of this form of'intangible heritage'as an historical source on a par with more explicit sources such as ancient drawings, books, archaeological excavations, etc. This study relates to the construction of a virtual model of ancient Rome within the framework of the international project known as" Rome Reborn 1.0"(www. romereborn. virginia. edu). It exploits ...
Granada, Spain, 2003
CITATIONS 7 READS 44 6 authors, including: Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: Isabella d'Este -Virtual Studiolo, the demo video View project Tiziano Diamanti Bluware Abstract Starting from the exigencies of restoration, safeguard and promotion set by Bologna City Council for its Museum of the Certosa Cemetery, a multilevel application has been developed. Its main features are dynamic generation of models, interaction with objects, link to relational multimedia database, DTM and a friendly, computer games like interface. The outcome is a flexible product, both from a technological point of view -it can be experienced on low cost platforms as well as in HI End systems -and for the possible kind of fruition, that can involve several different groups of users.
The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XLII-2, 2018 ISPRS TC II Mid-term Symposium “Towards Photogrammetry 2020”
The best way to disseminate culture is, nowadays, the creation of scenarios with virtual and augmented reality that supply the visitors of museums with a powerful, interactive tool that allows to learn sometimes difficult concepts in an easy, entertaining way. 3D models derived from reality-based techniques are nowadays used to preserve, document and restore historical artefacts. These digital contents are also powerful instrument to interactively communicate their significance to non-specialist, making easier to understand concepts sometimes complicated or not clear. Virtual and Augmented Reality are surely a valid tool to interact with 3D models and a fundamental help in making culture more accessible to the wide public. These technologies can help the museum curators to adapt the cultural proposal and the information about the artefacts based on the different type of visitor’s categories. These technologies allow visitors to travel through space and time and have a great educative function permitting to explain in an easy and attractive way information and concepts that could prove to be complicated. The aim of this paper is to create a virtual scenario and an augmented reality app to recreate specific spaces in the Capitoline Museum in Rome as they were during Winckelmann’s time, placing specific statues in their original position in the 18th century.
This paper presents the first installation produced with the data collected on the ancient roman city of Colonia Dacica Sarmizegetusa: it can be considered a concrete example of a full workflow, from photogrammetric 3D acquisition to gaming experience, able to contribute to the community of experts in the domain of virtual museum. The visualization of enormous archaeological contexts like a whole ancient city has been a test bed to develop tools and methodologies in order to create and maintain accurate and fully real-time enabled 3D models. In the temporary exhibition, open until 30 September 2016, a multimedia installation based on "natural interaction" solutions was set up: thanks to Kinect and Leap-Motion sensors visitors can interact with virtual environments and objects, using gestures to experience a more engaging and intuitive experience. Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACM CCS): I.3.3 [Computer Graphics]: Picture/Image Generation—Line and curve generation I.4.1 [Image processing and computer vision]: Digitization and Image Capture—I.6.0 [Simulation and model-ing]: General—I.6.5 [Simulation and modeling]: Model Development—
Virtual Reality in Cultural Heritage: A Setup for Balzi Rossi Museum
Applied sciences, 2024
This study presents the creation of a virtual reality experience for the Museo Preistorico dei Balzi Rossi e Zona Archeologica (hence Balzi Rossi Museum) commemorating the centenary of Prince Albert I Grimaldi's archaeological work at the site. The project aims to preserve and convey the site's heritage through advanced VR technology. Photogrammetry was used for 3D reconstruction of the entire Balzi Rossi coastal cliffs, including the notable "Caviglione" and "Florestano" caves, known for their upper Paleolithic rock engravings. Two subsequent development phases produced the final public VR experience, incorporating Nanite technology for enhanced visual fidelity. This advancement resulted in a more detailed and immersive VR experience, presenting the Balzi Rossi cliffs across different historical periods, including the Würm glaciation. Key to this phase was optimizing the VR experience for performance, focusing on stable frame rates and minimizing motion sickness, and integrating a multi-lingual interface for broader accessibility. Since November 2023, the VR setup at Balzi Rossi Museum has been an educational and interactive feature enabling visitors to virtually explore the site's history. This study aims to describe a process for optimizing and enabling the creation of VR experiences while maintaining a high polygon count within the context of small teams.
Proceedings of 14th International Congress “Cultural Heritage and New Technologies, 2009
The paper concerns the experience that was gained in the context of the Virtual Museum of Iraq project, promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and under the scientific supervision by Italian National Research Council. The project is finalized to create a rich website, free to the general public, based on the archaeological collection of the National Museum of Baghdad. The creation of an innovative virtual museum shows the need to explore new digital communication. The principal contribution of Institute for Archaeological and Monumental Heritage (CNR-IBAM) in the project derive from the need to contextualize objects and monuments on show in the Virtual Museum. For this contextualization two main problems are highlighted and faced: the documentation and the communication of the archaeological sites. The research activity in the project provided an integration between humanistic approaches (archaeological data and historical sources) and recent scientific methodologies. More specifically, the ancient sources and the data from the old excavations are integrated with satellite remote sensing documentation; 3D image-based modelling techniques (photo-modelling and digital photogrammetry) were used for the communication of archaeological data.
Virtual Archaelogy and Museums: where are the exhibits?
Franco Niccolucci, ed., Virtual Archaeology; proceedings of the VAST Euroconference, Arezzo, 24-25 November, 2000. Oxford: ArcheoPress (British Archaeological Reports, International Series #1075. , 2002
Although museums with collections of art, architecture, and archaeological artifacts - those precious remains of our global cultural heritage - would seem to have a broad stake in captivating and educating visitors with innovative and informative displays, these museums generally lag behind other institutional users of virtual reality for the digital re-creation and evocation of past places and peoples. Virtual reality (VR) is no longer a fringe technology, yet museums have been ambivalent toward its use. Some of the reasons for this lack of enthusiasm will be discussed.Issues regarding the acceptability of computers in museum galleries, accessibility of the displays to all segments of the museum-going public, perceived conflicts with the primary mission of the museum as an institution, the credibility of virtual recreations, the long-term stability of the technology, and the impression that such exhibits are expensive have kept museum directors, curators, and exhibit designers from making more use of VR. This paper will explore some of these and other issues (why have museums been reluctant to pursue the inclusion of VR exhibits?), including the historical role of museums (is there a historical rationale for the current reluctance?). The paper will also suggest the means whereby virtual cultural heritage exhibits can successfully be integrated with artworks for the benefit of museums and the visiting public (accurate, inexpensive, and exciting VR exhibits can enhance the museum-goers experience, but can the VR industry provide such a combination?). The study and display of the past need not be constrained by the methods or technologies of the past.
ISPRS - International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences
Today the ICTs are favourable additions to museum exhibitions. This work aims to realize an innovative system of digital exploitation of artefacts in the National Archaeological Museum of Marche (MANaM), in order to create a shared museum that will improve the knowledge of cultural contents through the paradigm "learning by interacting" and “edutainment”. <br><br> The main novelty is the implementation of stand-alone multimedia installations for digital artefacts that combine real and virtual scenarios in order to enrich the experience, the knowledge and the multi-sensory perception. <br><br> A Digital Library (DL) is created using Close Range Photogrammetry (CRP) techniques applied to 21 archaeological artefacts belonging to different categories. Enriched with other data (texts, images, multimedia), all 3D models flow into the cloud data server from which are recalled in the individual exhibitions. In particular, we have chosen three types of techn...
The Virtual Museum of the Tiber Valley Project
El objetivo del projecto del Museo Virtual de la Valle del Tiber es la creación de un sistema digital integrado para el conocimiento, la valorización y la comunicación del paisaje cultural, arqueológico y natural lo largo del valle del Tíber, en la zona Sabina entre Monte Soratte y la antigua ciudad de Lucus Feroniae (Capena). Aplicaciones de realidad virtual, contenidos multimediales, junto con un sitio web, están en construcción y se tendrá acceso a los museos en el interior del territorio y en un museo central en Roma. Las diferentes fases de trabajo se centraran en la construcción de una base de datos arqueológicos geoespacial, en la reconstrucción del paisaje antiguo potencial y en la creación de los modelos virtuales de los sitios arqueológicos más importantes. Este documento se centrará en las metodologías utilizadas y presentará los resultados presentes y futuras.