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.

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.

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.

This work addresses the lack of methodologies for the seamless integration of 360° videos, 3D digitized artifacts, and virtual human agents within a virtual reality environment. The proposed methodology is showcased in the context of a tour guide application and centers around the innovative use of a central hub, metaphorically linking users to various historical locations. Leveraging a treasure hunt metaphor and a storytelling approach, this combination of digital structures is capable of building an exploratory learning experience. Virtual human agents contribute to the scenario by offering personalized narratives and educational content, contributing to an enriched cultural heritage journey. Key contributions of this research include the exploration of the symbolic use of the central hub, the application of a gamified approach through the treasure hunt metaphor, and the seamless integration of various technologies to enhance user engagement. This work contributes to the understanding of context-specific cultural heritage applications and their potential impact on cultural tourism. The output of this research work is the reusable methodology and its demonstration in the implemented showcase application that was assessed by a heuristic evaluation.

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.