The evolution of digital technologies has resulted in the emergence of diverse interaction technologies. In this paper, we conducted a review of seven domains under a human-centric approach user interface design, human-centered web-based information systems, semantic knowledge representation, X-reality applications, human motion and 3D digitization, serious games, and AI. In this review, we studied these domains concerning their impact on the way we interact with digital interfaces, process information, and engage in immersive experiences. As such, we highlighted the shifts in design paradigms, user-centered principles, and the rise of web-based information systems. The results of such shifts are materialized in modern immersive technologies, semantic knowledge representation, serious games, and the facilitation of artificial intelligence for interactions. Through this exploration, we aimed to assist our understanding of the challenges that lie ahead. The seamless integration of technologies, ethical considerations, accessibility, education for technological literacy, interoperability, user trust, environmental sustainability, and regulatory frameworks are becoming significant. These challenges present opportunities for the future to enrich human experiences while addressing societal needs. This paper lays the groundwork for thoughtful and innovative approaches to the challenges that will define the future of human–computer interaction and information technologies.

With the ever-advancing availability of digitized museum artifacts, the question of how to make the vast collection of exhibits accessible and explorable beyond what museums traditionally offer via their websites and exposed databases has recently gained increased attention. This research work introduces the Invisible Museum: a user-centric platform that allows users to create interactive and immersive virtual 3D/VR exhibitions using a unified collaborative authoring environment. The platform itself was designed following a Human-Centered Design approach, with the active participation of museum curators and end-users. Content representation adheres to domain standards such as International Committee for Documentation of the International Council of Museums (CIDOC-CRM) and the Europeana Data Model and exploits state-of-the-art deep learning technologies to assist the curators by generating ontology bindings for textual data. The platform enables the formulation and semantic representation of narratives that guide storytelling experiences and bind the presented artifacts with their socio-historic context. Main contributions are pertinent to the fields of (a) user-designed dynamic virtual exhibitions, (b) personalized suggestions and exhibition tours, (c) visualization in web-based 3D/VR technologies, and (d) immersive navigation and interaction. The Invisible Museum has been evaluated using a combination of different methodologies, ensuring the delivery of a high-quality user experience, leading to valuable lessons learned, which are discussed in the article.

This paper presents a knowledge representation framework and provides tools to allow the representation and presentation of the tangible and intangible dimensions of culinary tradition as cultural heritage including the socio-historic context of its evolution. The representation framework adheres to and extends the knowledge representation standards for the Cultural Heritage (CH) domain while providing a widely accessible web-based authoring environment to facilitate the representation activities. In strong collaboration with social sciences and humanities, this work allows the exploitation of ethnographic research outcomes by providing a systematic approach for the representation of culinary tradition in the form of recipes, both in an abstract form for their preservation and in a semantic representation of their execution captured on-site during ethnographic research.

Virtual Humans are becoming a commodity in computing technology and lately have been utilized in the context of interactive presentations in Virtual Cultural Heritage environments and exhibitions. To this end, this research work underlines the importance of aligning and fine-tuning Virtual Humans’ appearance to their roles and highlights the importance of affective components. Building realistic Virtual Humans was traditionally a great challenge requiring a professional motion capturing studio and heavy resources in 3D animation and design. In this paper, a workflow for their implementation is presented, based on current technological trends in wearable mocap systems and advancements in software technology for their implementation, animation, and visualization. The workflow starts from motion recording and segmentation to avatar implementation, retargeting, animation, lip synchronization, face morphing, and integration to a virtual or physical environment. The testing of the workflow occurs in a use case for the Mastic Museum of Chios and the implementation is validated both in a 3D virtual environment accessed through Virtual Reality and on-site at the museum through an Augmented Reality application. The findings, support the initial hypothesis through a formative evaluation, and lessons learned are transformed into a set of guidelines to support the replication of this work.

This work regards the digital representation of tangible and intangible dimensions of heritage crafts, towards craft preservation. Based on state-of-the-art digital documentation, knowledge representation and narrative creation approach are presented. Craft presentation methods that use the represented content to provide accurate, intuitive, engaging, and educational ways for HC presentation and appreciation are proposed. The proposed methods aim to contribute to HC preservation, by adding value to the cultural visit, before, and after it.

Advances in digitization technologies have made possible the digitization of entire archaeological sites through a combination of technologies, including aerial photogrammetry, terrestrial photogrammetry, and terrestrial laser scanning. At the same time, the evolution of computer algorithms for data processing and the increased processing power made possible the combination of data from multiple scans to create a synthetic representation of large-scale sites. Finally, post-processing techniques and the evolution of computer and mobile GPUs and game engines have made possible the exploitation of digitization outcomes to further scientific study and historical preservation. This route was opened by the gaming industry. In terms of research, the exploitation of these new assets in conjunction with new visual rendering technologies, such as virtual and augmented reality, can create new dimensions for education and leisure. In this paper, we explore the usage of large-scale digitization of a heritage site to create a unique virtual visiting experience that can be accessed offline in VR and AR and on-site when visiting the archaeological site.