Historical weaving techniques have evolved in time and space giving as result more or less fabrics with different aesthetical characteristics. These techniques were transferred along the main silk production centers, thanks to the European Silk Road and creating a common European Frame on themes and techniques. These had made it complicated to determine whether a fabric corresponds to one century or another. Moreover, in order to understand their creation, it is necessary to determine the number of weaves and interlacements that each textile has, therefore, mathematical models can be extracted from these layers. In this sense, three dimensional (3D) virtual representations of the internal structure of textiles are of interest for a variety of purposes related to fashion, industry, education or other areas. The aim of this paper is to propose a mathematical modelling of historical weaving techniques by means of matrices in order to be easily mapped to a virtual 3D representation. The work focuses on historical silk textiles, ranging from the 15th to the 19th centuries. We also propose a computer vision-based strategy to extract relevant information from digital imagery, by considering different types of images (textiles, technical drawings and macro images). The work here presented has been carried out in the scope of the SILKNOW project, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 769504. The results shown in the paper are preliminary and will be improved in the scope of the project.

This paper presents "The Mediterranean Forest," an interactive exhibit designed for the Science Museum of Valencia. The exhibit engages children aged 3–8 by bringing their animal drawings to life in a virtual world. The system allows children to select, paint, scan, and transform drawings into three-dimensional avatars. These virtual animals interact with each other in the environment and with the children in the room. The exhibit is a collaborative space, where users can manipulate the real world, that promotes learning by exploration. The proposed solution integrates various cutting-edge technologies, including a large Virtual Reality projection system with blending techniques, Kinect devices for the interactivity, cheoptics hologram technology for realistic 3D visuals, and AI-driven virtual avatars simulating different behaviors and reacting to the user’s approach. The exhibit was evaluated through a study involving children, with feedback collected using a tailored questionnaire and the results indicated high levels of engagement and enjoyment among the children, with the majority expressing positive experiences. Some questions were not understandable for some children, which should be considered for future formal evaluation. The system's intuitiveness allowed children to navigate and interact with the virtual environment. The exhibit also demonstrates scalability, accommodating large groups of children effectively. Overall, "The Mediterranean Forest" successfully captivates children's attention, fostering creativity and imagination by transforming their drawings into a dynamic virtual world. This study underscores the benefits of using interactive technologies in museum settings to enhance children's learning experiences, encouraging further advancements in this field.

The documentation, dissemination, and enhancement of Cultural Heritage is of great relevance. To that end, technological tools and interactive solutions (e.g., 3D models) have become increasingly popular. Historical silk fabrics are nearly flat objects, very fragile and with complex internal geometries, related to different weaving techniques and types of yarns. These characteristics make it difficult to properly document them, at the yarn level, with current technologies. In this paper, we bring a new methodology to virtually represent such heritage and produce 3D printouts, also making it highly interactive through the tool Virtual Loom. Our work involves sustainability from different perspectives: (1) The traditional production of silk fabrics respects the environment; (2) Virtual Loom allows the studying of silk heritage while avoiding their degradation; (3) Virtual Loom allows creative industries to save money and materials; (4) current research on bioplastics for 3D printing contributes to environmental sustainability; (5) edutainment and gaming can also benefit from Virtual Loom, avoiding the need to acquire the original objects and enhancing creativity. The presented work has been carried out within the scope of the SILKNOW project to show some results and discuss the sustainability issues, from the production of traditional silk fabrics, to their dissemination by means of Virtual Loom and 3D printed shapes.

Multisensory stimuli can be integrated in systems that make use of different paradigms, such as Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) or, in a wider sense, Mixed Reality (MR), enhancing user experiences within the virtual content. However, despite the many technological solutions that exist (both hardware and software), only visual and sonic stimuli can be considered as highly integrated in consumer-grade applications. This chapter addresses the current state of the art in multisensory experiences, taking also in consideration the aforementioned interaction paradigms, and brings the benefits and challenges. As an example, authors introduce ROMOT, a RObotic 3D-MOvie Theatre, that supports and integrates various types of displays and interactive applications, providing users with multisensory experiences.