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VR devices and cultural heritage

nazg
Honored Guest
Hi fellow VR enthusiasts,

As far as I can tell, I didn't find any real topic dedicated to the use of VR regarding cultural heritage transmission. At best it was showcases, like virtual museum.

So, here is my contribution, and maybe the beginning of a collaborative project. I will start by introducing myself quickly, and then I will expose you the ideas I’ve in mind for quite some time.
As for now I’m doing a Ph.D in archaeology in France. I will not spend much time speaking about my research, because it’s not really relevant to the subject.

As an archaeologist, one of my main concern is about the exploitation and transmission of cultural heritage. And obviously, if I’m here today, it’s because I’m looking forward to explore the many ways we can use this incredible tool which is VR. I’m well aware that VR is not a “new” concept in a technological point of view. But here, with Oculus and all the other actors which are coming forward, we are within the reach of democratization of this technology. Products will be accessible to the masses in a near future.

It's a great opportunity and a great challenge at the same time. And we need to start thinking through this right now.

1) Introduction

2) VR challenges regarding public use, and cultural heritage transmission to the public

2.1) What use for VR in cultural heritage transmission and research?
2.2) Available tools?
2.3) Do we need to develop a methodology regarding the processing of cultural heritage data?
2.4) Throwing some idea about scientific projects in archaeology..
.


3) How to handle the severe drawbacks of VR use in public situation? From hardware to technical issues?

3.1) Reliability?
3.2) Accessibility and hygiene?
3.3) Technical issues?


Focus for reflection :
- short term / long term solutions
- communication toward public and institutions, how to make people aware of the possibility of VR beyond our little circle of enthusiasts?
- making good use of the idea already developed toward the gaming industry (progressive rotation to avoid VR sickness,...)
- what Oculus VR and other VR actors have in mind outside gaming industry?
2 REPLIES 2

nazg
Honored Guest
1) Introduction

I will not spend too much time in this part, because I think most of you already know what is at stake here. Anyway I will start by apologizing for my poor english.
Now, how can we use VR to improve public experience regarding cultural heritage transmission ?
As you may now, the medium of communication, the vessel so to speak, is as important as the message itself when it comes to display cultural heritage. Whether it's archaeology, art,...
Museum have used a wide range of visual solutions to get public attention : shiny archaeological artefacts displays (restored, reproduction...) ; re-enactments (real life ones, movies, 3D movies...) ; static reconstructions (drawings,

3D, models,...) ; interactive setups (tablet computers, augmented reality)...
None of the above are as immersive, entertaining or interactive as a well thought VR setup.

I will leave the detailed setups I have thought about for another post, and keep it to some hints in the following paragraphs.
The way I see it, I will write a list of open questions, followed by my opinion on the subject. And hopefully you will complete (or correct) my statements.

2) VR challenges regarding public use, and cultural heritage transmission to the public

2.1) What use for VR in cultural heritage transmission and research?
As I already stated I will make a post later regarding this particular topic. But as for archaeology, I think VR is a great opportunity to bring the field into public space, making it both more accessible and meaningful.

2.2) Available tools?
Presently VR is seen as a gaming object, it's a great vector for democratization, but it also means that most of the tools available are dedicated to gaming industry. So far only a few big software actors have come forward, displaying very limited interactions with VR, not as a gaming extension, but as a working tool. We have also some showcases displayed in the forum, mostly addressing very specific uses and/or issues.

Short term insight : Are the actual available tools suitable for developing projects relative to our topic? I would say some of them are, when you think of unity by example. Even if I don't like it, I must acknowledge it's a great platform : it's user friendly, both software developers and community are very active, it's open enough to make relevant specific subtools.
Long term insight : Well, it's obvious that at some point, when the VR democratization will reach a critical step, there will be need for dedicated tools. Until this time comes, I'm pretty sur we can stick to the already available tools, granted some of us provide temporary subtools (unity packages, etc...) and specific standalone complementary tools.

2.3) Do we need to develop a methodology (and by all means an open one) regarding the processing of cultural heritage data?
It's really bothering me to be honest. If we do manage to attract the attention of entities related to cultural heritage display (wich as for now I will call CHE), they will expect a quick way to go from what seems to be a great idea to a concrete production, at least a showcase. And you need to be quick when it comes to an emergent phenomenon as VR is. You just can't let the "hype" go.
We already have guides popping out, explaining more or less extensivly how to implement VR in games. I'm strongly convinced that we should do the same, and start to define a set of recommandations (rules?).

Short term insight : Likely a common “tutorial”, granting local actors the developers experience, in order to smooth and ease the development of their own projects?
Long term insight : At this point, anew, we are dealing with software/tools matter. What was thought in term of methodology at the beginning, then experienced through concrete projects, will finally make his way to professionnal products.

2.4) Throwing some idea about scientific projects in archaeology...
Outside the frame of public display, I already have great hope for VR as a scientific tool. I will only speak about two personnal examples :

- First, the way we can use VR with photogrammetry to ease the analysis of field data after surveys. To make it short, it gives us acces to every steps of the survey, even after potential destructions. Also we can have accurate records of complex geometries or large numbers of inclusions. It's even a great collaborative tool. And more, with little to no effort you can make a public display of what was a working tool at the beginning.

http://gmv.cast.uark.edu/region-data/data-photogrammetry/gabii-photogrammetry/

- Secondly, something more conceptual. One of my colleague is working on the visual perception of archaeological data. To make it quick, most of the time we are using our modern point of view to determine the symbolism of complex architectural setups. Is this element more important than this one? How people move into the building? Where were they standing, etc... Mostly it's nothing more than opinion, sometime a well argumented one. But nonetheless, it's only reflecting our perception of the past, which is culturaly oriented.
We can make progress in this field by studying how people are acting when they actually are in the said architectural setup. What catch their eyes first, for how much time,... Visual perception is a well codified field of behavioral studies. We know what is more likely to catch people attention (shape, luminosity, various environnmental factors,...).
VR give us a practical way to record the said visual data, to multiply experimentations in controlled environment, and to examinate different sets of situations (various luminosity setup, various sounds,...)


3) How to handle the severe drawbacks of VR use in public situation? from hardware to technical issues.

3.1) Reliability?
Some of us have already experienced it. The Devkit 1 is clearly not made for an intensive public use. And I think nether Devkit 2 or CR1 will be significantly better from this point of view. Nothing wrong about it, those are clearly developped toward domestic use.
Now, what VR actors have in mind to adress this issue? Are they already planning to make specific products? In the meantime, how can we tweak the actual available product ?
I’m pretty convinced it’s an issue which is already taking care of by Oculus VR team. The few “showrooms” they used to setup for past months events must have given them some insights on this topic. What is the expected life of DevKit, what are they planning for the Customer Release, and more importantly, if they have a special headset in mind oriented toward public use.

3.2) Accessibility and hygiene?
Another thing we have to think about is how we setup the hardware, and how can we deal with hygiene issues?
If the first issue is not that big of a problem, I've honestly no idea how to manage the second at the moment. God, I'm not even able to keep my own lenses clean ! As a member of the public, I would be very reluctant to put a dirty VR device on my head if you know what I mean...

3.3) Technical issues?
We are also well aware of what I should call physiological issues. VR immersion is closely related to a fine tune of interpupillary distance, with sensible variations regarding gender or even size. This is a major downside, if not the most important one. And what about eyes disorder? We clearly can't afford to have someone switching lenses and calibrating the VR device all day long...
Some of us have already taken this matter very seriously, and I think we are on our way to ease the process.
And there is the problem of VR sickness, even if we can expect big improvements with better screens and suitable gameplay tricks (The so called comfort mode used recently in a showcase, which is clearly a great idea and easily implementable).
What short term solutions can we afford, and what innovations can we expect in a near future?


Well, I think it summerizes pretty well the expectations and fears of the people I've interviewed. Mostly museum staff/managers and archaeologists.
As I said in the beginning, this first post is about "open questions", and a brief comment. I will developp every aspects in future posts, and hopefully we will have a nice debate.

One last question, do you think I should setup a little website to summarize our discussions, and make them easily accessible ?

DFin
Honored Guest
TL;DR

But about one of your Questions:
- communication toward public and institutions, how to make people aware of the possibility of VR beyond our little circle of enthusiasts?


Just show them Photogrammetry/Scanning Data in the Rift! From my expirience it's the only way to make people understand and then they are like "Wow! Now i know why you think this changes everything!"