Initial User-Centered Design of a Virtual Reality Heritage System: Applications for Digital Tourism

Poux, Florent; Valembois, Quentin; Mattes, Christian; Kobbelt, Leif; Billen, Roland

doi:10.3390/rs12162583

Cited by 68 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…The main aim behind this was the creation of a single widely accessible space where members of the public can explore multiple UCH sites as 3D reconstructions or through virtual reality (VR). The versatility and success of tools such as 3D models and VR for cultural heritage purposes have already been demonstrated [5,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21], establishing them as fundamental tools that "can be applied to the world of cultural heritage as a vessel for preservation, reconstruction, documentation, research and promotion" [22] (p. 42).…”

Section: Malta and The Development Of Underwater Cultural Heritage Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making the Invisible Visible: Underwater Malta—A Virtual Museum for Submerged Cultural Heritage

et al. 2021

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The seabed can be considered as the world’s largest museum, and underwater sites explored and studied so far provide priceless information on human interaction with the sea. In recognition of the importance of this cultural resource, UNESCO, in its 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, determined that objects/sites should be preserved in situ, whilst also advocating for public access and sharing. The implementation of these principles is not without difficulties. Some states have opened up underwater sites to the public—mainly through diving, yet the vast majority of the world’s population does not dive. In Malta, 7000 years of human occupation is reflected in and on the landscape, and recent offshore surveys show that the islands’ long and complex history has also left an indelible mark on the seabed. Besides difficulties related to their protection and management, these sites also present a challenge with regard to sharing and communicating. Recent advances in underwater imaging and processing software have accelerated the development of 3D photogrammetry of submerged sites and the idea for a virtual museum was born. The virtual museum, UnderwaterMalta, was created out of a need to share the plethora of underwater sites located on the seabed of the Maltese Islands. A multitude of digital tools are used to share and communicate these sites, offering visitors a dry dive into submerged sites that would otherwise remain invisible to the vast majority of the public. This paper discusses the basic principle of the sharing of underwater cultural heritage and the difficulties that beset the implementation of such a principle. A detailed explanation and evaluation of the methods used to gather the raw data needed is set in the context of the particular and unique working conditions related to deep water sites. The workings of this paper are based on first-hand experiences garnered through the recording of numerous wrecks over the years and the creation and launch of The Virtual Museum-Underwater Malta—a comprehensive virtual museum specifically built for “displaying” underwater archaeological sites that are otherwise invisible to the general public.

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Section: Malta and The Development Of Underwater Cultural Heritage Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making the Invisible Visible: Underwater Malta—A Virtual Museum for Submerged Cultural Heritage

et al. 2021

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“…Regarding virtual reality, it has been demonstrated that, by optimizing the virtual environment's architecture, the use of UCD in the development of virtual experiences offers a more efficient, satisfying, user-friendly experience (Gabbard et al, 1999;Jerald, 2015;Barbieri et al, 2018;Gladden, 2018). It has been employed to design and evaluate virtual experiences in museums (Barbieri et al, 2018), tourism (Poux et al, 2020), automotive industries (de Clerk et al, 2019), and military (Hix et al, 1999), and medical fields (Vailland et al, 2019). Furthermore, it has been used to develop virtual reality content for mental health (Fidopiastis et al, 2010;Koenig et al, 2012;Boger et al, 2018;Eisapour et al, 2018;Flobak et al, 2019;Pizzoli et al, 2019), particularly virtual environments for cognitive assessment and rehabilitation (Fidopiastis et al, 2010;Koenig et al, 2012), and to promote physical activity among people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (Boger et al, 2018;Eisapour et al, 2018).…”

Section: Development and Evaluation Protocol Of The Mind-vr Psychoeducational Virtual Experiencementioning

confidence: 99%

MIND-VR: Design and Evaluation Protocol of a Virtual Reality Psychoeducational Experience on Stress and Anxiety for the Psychological Support of Healthcare Workers Involved in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Pallavicini

Orena

Santo

et al. 2021

Front. Virtual Real.

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To ensure the continuity of healthcare and to counter the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, doctors and nursing staff at hospitals must face an insidious, invisible danger that is stretching the healthcare system far past its capacity. Excessive workload, inadequate protection from contamination, the need to manage patients experiencing extreme suffering and being kept apart from their families put medical personnel at high risk to experience stress and anxiety. Numerous scientific studies have shown that, among various therapeutic programs, virtual reality represents a highly specialized and effective tool for the prevention and treatment of stress and anxiety. However, the solutions developed using this technology for the management of stress and anxiety induced by the COVID-19 pandemic are still very limited, and none of these have been developed specifically for use with healthcare professionals. Therefore, this paper will detail the design and evaluation protocol of MIND-VR, a virtual reality-based psychoeducational experience on stress and anxiety developed following a user-centered design approach. The virtual experience will be tested on a sample of Italian hospital healthcare personnel involved in the COVID-19 pandemic emergency. MIND-VR is available free of charge, both in Italian and English, on the project website (https://mind-vr.com/).

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“…2020, 9, 588 of 30 and non-specialists. Based on our experience and previous works in the field [7,75,76], we wish to add such visualisation techniques to HIS-PC to extend the uses of cultural heritage digital content (tourism, teaching, cultural mediation . .…”

Section: Takeaways and Research Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The development of HIS is essential to achieve better site management, conservation, information dissemination and public mediation, but it requires some significant progress. Moreover, as stated by Poux et al in [7], different worlds with different perspectives (e.g., geoinformation vs. cultural heritage vs. computer graphics) diminish the flexibility of a system if no balanced approach is mapped to the development of the solution. This is why it is important to design a solid software architecture that is directly intended to integrate diverse viewpoints [8,9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Built Heritage Information System Based on Point Cloud Data: HIS-PC

Poux

Billen

Kasprzyk

et al. 2020

IJGI

Self Cite

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The digital management of an archaeological site requires to store, organise, access and represent all the information that is collected on the field. Heritage building information modelling, archaeological or heritage information systems now tend to propose a common framework where all the materials are managed from a central database and visualised through a 3D representation. In this research, we offer the development of a built heritage information system prototype based on a high-resolution 3D point cloud data set. The particularity of the approach is to consider a user-centred development methodology while avoiding meshing/down-sampling operations. The proposed system is initiated by a close collaboration between multi-modal users (managers, visitors, curators) and a development team (designers, developers, architects). The developed heritage information system permits the management of spatial and temporal information, including a wide range of semantics using relational along with NoSQL databases. The semantics used to describe the artifacts are subject to conceptual modelling. Finally, the system proposes a bi-directional communication with a 3D interface able to stream massive point clouds, which is a big step forward to provide a comprehensive site representation for stakeholders while minimising modelling costs.

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Initial User-Centered Design of a Virtual Reality Heritage System: Applications for Digital Tourism

Cited by 68 publications

References 76 publications

Making the Invisible Visible: Underwater Malta—A Virtual Museum for Submerged Cultural Heritage

Making the Invisible Visible: Underwater Malta—A Virtual Museum for Submerged Cultural Heritage

MIND-VR: Design and Evaluation Protocol of a Virtual Reality Psychoeducational Experience on Stress and Anxiety for the Psychological Support of Healthcare Workers Involved in the COVID-19 Pandemic

A Built Heritage Information System Based on Point Cloud Data: HIS-PC

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