The most peculiar characteristic of a cultural heritage is represented by its uniqueness. To ensure that an object is preserved against environmental deterioration, vandal attacks, and accidents, modern Cultural Heritage documentation involves 3D scanning technologies. In the case of fragmented artefacts, the digitization process represents an essential prerequisite for facilitating an accurate 3D reconstruction. The aim of this research paper is to present a framework that enables an accurate digital reconstruction of fragmented or damaged artefacts using ornament stencils obtained from 3D scan data. The proposed framework has been applied for the richly adorned ornaments of the fragmented Dacian embossed disk from Piatra Roșie. The case study makes use of the 3D dataset acquired, using a structured light scanner to extract vector displacement maps, which are then applied to the 3D computer-aided design (CAD) model. The output of the framework includes a proposed digital reconstruction of the aurochs fragmented Dacian embossed disk, as well as the ornaments’ stencils database. The proposed framework addresses problems that are associated with 3D reconstruction processes, such as self-intersections, non-manifold geometry, 3D model topology, and file format interoperability. Finally, the resulting 3D reconstruction has been integrated within virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) applications, as well as computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) based on additive manufacturing to facilitate the dissemination of the results.

Museums all around the globe are starting to adopt advanced technologies that enable the visitors to interact with digital replicas of their collections and artworks. Immersive and interactive virtual reality applications represent one of the most appealing and most used technologies within modern museum exhibitions areas. Using these types of applications the visitors can have access to additional layers of information which can be presented in different languages and presented to the visitor when they demand it using advanced digital interactivity. But the major drawback of these applications is that they don’t allow the users to experience tactile exploration regarding the shapes and ornaments of the cultural heritage artefacts. People are programmed to gather and receive sensory information using their sight, hearing but also using tactile experiences. In order to enable tactile experiences within museum exhibitions, modern technologies such as haptic devices can be installed to enable the visitors to examine the shape of the 3D digital replicas of real artefacts. This paper presents a case study of a haptic device instalment within a museum exhibition that can enable real time tactile exploration of digitized artefacts.

Cultural institutions are increasingly prioritizing the utilization of diverse mixed reality technologies to enrich the visitor experience during their physical exhibitions. These institutions are actively integrating virtual assets to enhance interactivity and facilitate immersive storytelling experiences. The use of extended reality technologies in cultural heritage dissemination has become a common solution to improve the perception on cultural heritage of their visitors. The objective of the proposed research is to conduct a comparative analysis of three distinct extended reality applications used in cultural heritage experiences. The proposed workflow integrates advanced 3D scanning technology and additive manufacturing techniques to produce tangible replicas which are further enhanced using extended reality technologies, such as augmented reality, desktop virtual reality, and immersive virtual reality. To evaluate the developed extended reality applications, we have conducted various System Usability Scale tools to assess applications’ usability while also trying to identify the most appropriate application that can be integrated within the museum exhibition. From a utility point of view, we found no notable differences in the user perceptions between proposed solutions, whereas from a usability and satisfaction point of view, the most preferred solution was the augmented reality one. The workflow is presented in sufficient detail to ensure the replication of the results.

This paper is situated at the intersection of using Virtual Reality as a tool for cultural heritage preservation and using gesture interaction-based technology in order to achieve touchless, distant interaction of users with reconstructed artifacts. Various studies emphasize the positive effect on the cultural experience brought on by the use of Virtual Reality in a museum context. We build our approach on this idea, by modeling and reconstructing museum exhibits, both small artifacts and large architectural edifices. We propose and design navigation and interaction scenarios, at the same time taking into account present day limitations regarding social interaction, imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. By considering the user in the center of the experience and focusing on enabling him/her to adjust the perspective on the visualized artifacts and to freely interact with them through natural gestures, we allow the user to immerse in the virtual environment and interact with the reconstructed artifacts by means of simple hand gestures, with no touch. Finally, we assess the usability and utility of the Virtual Reality system in a questionnaire-based study with 137 participants over a period of 6 months, whose results we discuss in the paper.

The wooden churches from Transylvania, Romania, are a unique and representative cultural heritage asset for rural communities, both in terms of architecture and the style of painting that defines them as monuments of national heritage. These churches are in danger of degradation because rural communities are beginning to abandon them for various motives (e.g., they are too small, are expensive to maintain, or are being replaced by modern churches, built of stone and modern materials). The reason behind their accelerated degradation is that they are covered with shingles that need to be periodically changed and repaired to prevent water from reaching the inner painting layer, a process that is, in many cases, ignored. Imperial gates are the symbol of these churches and separate the nave from the narthex. They are made entirely out of wood and were sculpted and painted manually by skilled craftsmen and still represent the central element of these churches, in terms of art and aesthetics. The digital preservation of these heritage assets is an interdisciplinary undertaking, which begins with the physico-chemical analysis of the pigments in the painting layer, continues with three-dimensional (3D) digitization of the monument and of the objects of interest (such as the imperial gates), and finishes with a digital restoration of these monuments and artefacts. This paper presents a working methodology, successfully applied in digitizing and digitally restoring imperial gates from wooden churches in Transylvania, namely from the wooden church of Voivodeni, Sălaj County, Romania (Transylvania region). X-ray fluorescence and FTIR spectroscopy were used to determine the pigments in the painting layer of these artefacts, and after they were identified, they were synthesized in laboratory conditions. The resulting color was digitized and used for digitally restoring the artefact(s) to its (their) pristine condition. To popularize these cultural heritage assets, the authors make use of virtual reality to mediate the interaction between the general public and heritage objects in their current state of preservation, in a digital environment. Moreover, to showcase how these heritage objects were degraded over time, a digitally restored version of the artefact in pristine condition is presented alongside a version in its current state (as is, digitized, but not yet digitally restored).