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.

An approach to the representation and documentation of craft processes is proposed. The proposed approach is a method for the systematic identification and digital representation of pertinent data, information, and knowledge. The outcome representation is compatible with contemporary digitisation practices and digital preservation standards. The implementation of the approach is provided within the context of an online platform that is accompanied by auxiliary tools for digital curation. This platform is a multiple user system, where craft representations can be collaboratively authored, shared, displayed, and digitally preserved in standardised formats. Basic uses of this scheme and presentational applications are provided, along with identification of future work and limitations.

A wide spectrum of digital data are becoming available to researchers and industries interested in the recording, documentation, recognition, and reproduction of human activities. In this work, we propose an approach for understanding and articulating human motion recordings into multimodal datasets and VR demonstrations of actions and activities relevant to traditional crafts. To implement the proposed approach, we introduce Animation Studio (AnimIO) that enables visualisation, editing, and semantic annotation of pertinent data. AnimIO is compatible with recordings acquired by Motion Capture (MoCap) and Computer Vision. Using AnimIO, the operator can isolate segments from multiple synchronous recordings and export them in multimodal animation files. AnimIO can be used to isolate motion segments that refer to individual craft actions, as described by practitioners. The proposed approach has been iteratively designed for use by non-experts in the domain of 3D motion digitisation.

Traditional crafts exhibit tangible and intangible dimensions. Intangible dimensions include the practitioner’s gestural know-how in craft practice and have received smaller attention than tangible dimensions in digitization projects. This work presents the process of representation and presentation of the glasswork and is exemplified in the re-creation of a historical object. Following an articulated pipeline approach for data collection, annotation, the crafting process is represented visually and semantically in a way that can be meaningfully presented and utilized in craft training and preservation. The outcomes of the proposed approach were used to implement a Mixed Reality installation. The installation targets craft presentation through an exploration of the workspace, as well as craft training through an interactive experience where users re-enact gestures of a glass master holding a tool and receiving audiovisual feedback on the accuracy of their performance. Preliminary evaluation results show high acceptance of the installation and increased user interest.

In this paper, a representation based on digital assets and semantic annotations is established for Traditional Craft instances, in a way that captures their socio-historic context and preserves both their tangible and intangible Cultural Heritage dimensions. These meaningful and documented experiential presentations are delivered to the target audience through narratives that address a range of uses, including personalized storytelling, interactive Augmented Reality (AR), augmented physical artifacts, Mixed Reality (MR) exhibitions, and the Web. The provided engaging cultural experiences have the potential to have an impact on interest growth and tourism, which can support Traditional Craft communities and institutions. A secondary impact is the attraction of new apprentices through training and demonstrations that guarantee long-term preservation. The proposed approach is demonstrated in the context of textile manufacturing as practiced by the community of the Haus der Seidenkultur, a former silk factory that was turned into a museum where the traditional craft of Jacquard weaving is still practiced.