This section provides more detailed information on the projects objectives, concepts and developments. Throughout this page you will be able to find multiple linked documents that have been produced during the project.
Strategic objectives
The main objective of DHX is to develop a Virtual Guidance System for Exploring Heritage by means of Immersive and Interactive presentations. The consortium has developed innovative solutions for creating and sharing tours through ecological and cultural content, including data acquisition methods using computer vision techniques, software tools for the management and creation of content into interactive tours, and affordable interactive and immersive presentation systems.
This section describes the particular objectives, with methods and actions for their development and dissemination (marketing) to the target groups. Specifically involved groups of external partners or target organizations aren mentioned. General concertation meetings as performed throughout the project with numerous museums and organizations are not mentioned particularly.
Create an Open Infrastructure
Create the foundation for a presentation system supporting immersive, guided tours at affordable prices for medium and large-size museums and other public cultural organizations ·
To support the data acquisition, content management for reconstruction of cultural and ecological heritage using computer vision-based data capturing and intuitive software tools for guided tour creation
To promote equitable access to heritage
To support scalability of presentation systems
To advance extendibility of diversified content by using standards for the creation and exchange of content
Methods, actions and associated partners
1.1 Multi-disciplinary integration during development and evaluation of software tools for data acquisition and content management, and presentation environments, involving cultural organizations, professional guides, IT-personnel and end-users (visitors)
1.2 Content input and evaluation from domain-specialists to research prototypes during data acquisition and content management
1.3 Promotion of DHX to “regular” content builders worldwide, including large museums, universities and research institutes using prepared information sheets
1.4 Expert workshops for demonstrating and evaluating concepts with key personnel
1.5 Focused evaluation sessions with museum personnel and general museum visitors
Museum steering group involvement: Opera del Duomo directorate, NHMC museum directorate, Beethoven Haus directorate, UNIMI Department of Performing Arts, Piccolo Theatre directorate
Professional Guides involvement: Arbeitskreis Museumspädagogik Norddeutschland (Federal Association for Museum Pedagogy)
Till current date, concertation meetings with around 30 museums and organizations worldwide
Advance cultural heritage exchange and learning
Develop new methods for knowledge exchange and learning in the cultural and ecological heritage area, by integrating virtual storytelling methods and new interaction paradigms into the creation and presentation of heritage.
Methods, actions and associated partners
2.1 Create advanced tools for designing and developing interactive, non-linear tours using powerful storytelling methods (DHX Guidance Tools consisting of World Editor, Guide GUI and Logical Storytelling Designer)
2.2 Develop and demonstrate networked mechanisms for remote demonstration and exchange of cultural content
2.3 Develop new interaction paradigms to extend involvement of visitors
· Flexible and extendible interaction mechanisms
· Capsa Arcana component-based interaction console
· Low-cost group-based interaction techniques
2.4 Cooperate with EU-funded cultural & IT projects for re-use of proven results, and discussion of new ideas.
LISTEN
Virtual Showcase
2.5 Integrate tools in development process of exchangeable and extendable content scenarios
2.6 Demonstrate and evaluate guide tools with professional guides using prepared information sheets and live demonstrations
2.7 Demonstrate Guidance Package to museums and other cultural organizations using prepared information sheets
Professional Guides involvement: Arbeitskreis Museumspädagogik Norddeutschland (Federal Association for Museum Pedagogy)
Create public awareness of developed technology and tools
Cultural heritage organizations, including museums and top-level cultural organizations, are being sensitized to adopt the usage of the DHX technology and tools. The public awareness is important to prove the usability of the results of DHX, and to guarantee a level of sustainability.
Methods, actions and associated partners
3.1 Setup of showcases at highly visited public locations, using the developed DHX core system, an affordable infrastructure for immersive and interactive guidance and exploration of ecological and cultural heritage.
3.2 Accessing communication mechanisms of large cultural organizations for disseminating project’s results, and anchoring proposed affordable presentation environment and tools in IT plans by personal workshops.
UNESCO / ICOM
UN
ECSITE
Countrywide organizations including Museums Association (UK), Deutscher Museumsbund (BRD), Smithsonian (USA)
Several networks including Virtual Heritage Network, and Archimuse
3.3 Dissemination to “specialized” top-level cultural and IT organizations, demonstrating specific contents of research prototypes, including architectural / archaeological, ecological, theatrical and IT specific societies.
3.4 Binding regional museums and public cultural space organizations into evaluation and demonstration of support technology and methodologies (also partly museum steering group)
Opera del Duomo Pisa
Piccolo Theatre Milan
NHMC Heraklion
Beethoven Haus Bonn
Further concertation meetings as planned
3.5 Focussed technical dissemination at museum-related and IT-conferences
Museum and art-oriented: EVA, CIDOC, VSMM
Technology-oriented: including IEEE, ACM conferences and journals
Network-meetings: multiple European and Asian network planning meetings (including TEIN, GEANT, Asia Pacific Information Infrastructure meetings)
3.6 Dissemination in public media – actions performed to reach large public appearance, informing general visitors (target user of DHX presentation system)
TV appearance (including Q21 (WDR)
Public media articles (including Focus)
3.7 Keep technology accessible by (semi-) permanent installations after the project’s end
NHMC Heraklion
Beethoven Haus Bonn
Opera del Duomo Pisa
Support service-oriented actions
In order to support the usage of the DHX system after the project’s end and the extension of content, services need to be sought that aid the end-users (museums and other cultural organizations) of the technology and tools.
4.1 Connect to EU supported frameworks (“communities”), thereby supporting service-oriented platforms and actions, by creating communities of a large amount of partners with the aim to set up to build up “digital libraries” of cultural heritage, and to improve the quality and effectiveness of the use of Information and Communication Technology for Cultural Heritage. The focus is at providing/setting up technical services that can be reused after the project, for creating new heritage and setting up presentations systems.
Bricks
4.2 Sustainability of publicly accessible installations for possible usage of content extensions and showcase of technology by permanent installations after projects’ end
NHMC Heraklion (new building)
Beethoven Haus Bonn
Opera del Duomo Pisa
Barco demonstration centre
4.3 Support of standards (XML) enables easier setup and exchange of virtual heritage. The DHX consortium provides XML formats for the interactive stories (tours) developed with the guidance tool set package
4.4 Making available specific knowledge in professional services (small and large businesses) after project’s end by involved business partners. Technological support (Barco) and content development (RMH, Vertigo-Systems, Fulmini & Leopardi).
Guidance concept
Introduction
Multimedia is all around us. With the up-rise of multimedia systems, new ways of cultural heritage mediation have become possible. While existing museums and information centres are very experienced with a traditional approach in the mediation of knowledge and increasingly adopt local multi-media information desks for additional information delivery, the mediation process is generally constrained by the number of available physical exhibits and the potential access by audiences, both in terms of numbers due to a specific geographical localization and in terms of reception due to the complexity and diversity of the information.
The DHX consortium is focusing at the application of affordable interactive presentation systems to deliver compelling contents in attractive ways to museum or other public space visitors, possibly over network, using Virtual Reality technologies. Hereby, local experts can control an application and communicate with visitors from a remote location, possibly at the other side of the globe.
The use of VR technology in a museum context assists museums in their venture of information delivery by improving the overall mediation process and dismissing interfering constraints. Furthermore it generates added value for the audience by gathering virtual exhibits, expert guides and multi-medial content from diverse sources and locations in a unique virtual environment. Technical exchangeability between different institutions increases the diversity of content.
The key component of the visitors’ satisfaction when visiting a museum is the overall understanding of the museum’s artefacts, e.g. how they relate to each other, their significance regarding a specific topic, how they affect the visitor personally and what they represent compared to other examples in the outer world. By including means of so called Virtual Storytelling methods the recipient’s attention can be sustained beyond their initial active interest in the content itself.
Concept
In real life, talents such as skilled museum guides and artists present content to the audience in a lively way. For example, they may introduce artefacts by telling interesting stories, thus making them appear more attractive to the audience.
In a scenario with virtual guidance, the user is exploring a set of artefacts inside a computer generated, immersive three-dimensional environment (of realistic or abstract appearance), accessing background information through a structured, story-based tour, supported by a virtual guide. The virtual guide incorporates the domain knowledge on heritage, and the behaviour to communicate this knowledge towards the user. The system arranges the presentation level of each exhibit along the tour in real-time according to progressively acquired knowledge about the user’s interest, resulting in an individual story experience.
The virtual guide will accompany the user, assisting and contributing to the presentation. The provided information is context-specific (depending on the user’s location and interaction) and can be explored in a question-and-answer kind of dialogue with the virtual guide. Technically speaking, the user traverses through the tree-like information structure till the desired level of information is reached.
The storyline establishes the connection between the artefacts and defines the relations and properties of the museum tour – it gives meaning to the tour and defines the level of attraction by allowing the user to dynamically move through a story, based on his personal preferences. Hence, the virtual storytelling methods used within DHX describe the appearance and arrangement of exhibits, the organisation and user-oriented presentation of data considering interest and previous knowledge (according to dramaturgic and didactic principles), the provision of interactive elements, the inclusion of expert guidance and a certain amount of scripted events for continuity and easy access. Storytelling in DHX is handled in a non-linear way, to provide an individual story experience to the visitor.
In a remote guidance setup, an expert can monitor and direct a remote group of visitors inside the application and directly communicate to these people to convey possible very specific information that is not covered by system.
For more information, please refer to:
Publication VSMM conference on “Remote Virtual Guidance in Immersive Museum Applications”
Support technologies
In cooperation with external partners, the DHX consortium has developed several tools and technologies that support guidance and exploration through virtual heritage. Museum directorates and professional guides have aided in developing methods for data acquisition and generation, content management and presentation of virtual heritage.
Data acquisition and generation
The content of the virtual scenarios mainly consists of the virtual representation of monuments, artefacts, music and stories. The digitalization/ retrievement of all necessary image data as well as the modelling of the 3D-content consists of standard data formats imported into DHX. Next to general capturing and modeling of data, including large datasets of Korean cultural landscapes and lost architectures, and the generation of special effects like the reverberation in Pisa Baptistery, special techniques or datasets have been created.
Computer-vision based capturing of landscape and animals have been implemented as a core part of the DHX framework. It consists of a tool that allows the visual 3D reconstruction of large natural sites based solely on a sparse set of real stereoscopic views, and a tool that lets obtaining lifelike animal motion using as input captured video sequences of animal movement and prior anatomy knowledge. These methods have been applied to the DHX research prototype “A virtual visit to the Samaria Gorge”. The input to the computer vision methods has been a set of stereoscopic views captured inside the Gorge. This content is later on displayed using advanced rendering techniques (image based rendering) inside the immersive environment.
Specialistic databases are also accessible. The world’s largest collection of Beethoven’s belongings, paintings, instruments and handwritings, located at Beethoven-Haus, Bonn, has provided valuable material for reconstructing Beethoven’s story. Furthermore, a large database containing theatrical data has been produced by the collaboration of Dept. of Computer Science and Communication and the Dept. of Performing arts both at University of Milan. It contains information of more than 1.000 acting companies, 84.000 actors, 52.000 performances, and 1.000 authors all coming from more than 20 theatres all across Italy (mainly Milan). The database in a one of a kind source for scientists all across Europe to perform their studies and to get closer to the history of Italian theatre.
Content management and presentation
In virtual guidance scenarios, the user is exploring a set of artifacts through a structured, story-based tour, supported by a virtual guide. The virtual guide will accompany the user, contributing to the presentation. The provided information is depending on the user’s location and interaction and can be explored in a question-and-answer kind of dialogue with the virtual guide. In a remote guidance setup, an expert can monitor and direct a remote group of visitors inside the application and convey very specific information that is not covered by system. Visitors are able to experience the content on the DHX core system, consisting of a medium or large-sized projection screen run by several projectors to create a stereo illusion, an audio system and several communication devices for audio generation and communication with a possibly remotely located guide. Networked sessions can run over anything from basic Internet connections up to fast gigabit networks.
In order to create compelling guided tours, several tools and interfaces have been created to empower the VR software framework (AVANGO or NAVER): the Logical Storytelling Designer (LSD) to structure the actual story; the Guide tools (including the World Editor) to define the guides’ behaviour and to structure the scenes. All actions can be controlled in real-time during presentations using the Guide GUI. The guide has a simple joystick interface to navigate visitors through the scenery or can also give over the navigation to the visitor, who can access a similar interface on the console device called Capsa Arcana. Next to the joystick, the console holds a touch-screen, and several communication devices. With this device structure, museums can build up their own console by using input device blocks, which they simply can put together to support the needed input at hand.
Ad Hoc devices have been created for special purposes user-interactions. A wind-machine reproducing the theatrical machinery used during the XIX century to simulate the sound of wind has been created and integrated into the tour. Via the real device and its representation into the virtual environment, users can now learn the way such a machinery worked by pulling the real device and viewing the results as a part of its virtual experience.
For more information, please refer to:
Specification of affordable VR systems for museums
Evaluation report on computer vision methods for the production chain