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Remembering Carrawburgh VR Past
- 1. Remembering Carrawburgh: Using VR to (Re)Create the Past Website: http://debmayers.com Photoscan: https://sketchfab.com/debmayers24 Twitter: @debmayers24 Github: https://github.com/dmayers340/
- 2. Agenda • Introduction to Carrawburgh • Displaying Artefacts • How to re-contextualize objects • Multisensory effects and VR • Visual • Audio • Haptic • Scent • Taste • Do these multisensory effects help with learning about the ancient world? Overview
- 8. Uses of Digital Media in Museums
- 9. BUT! • Objects are multisensory • Both current museum displays and digital display methods, have limitations on truly experiencing artifacts
- 10. The Senses: Vision • ~80% perception comes from sight • Content must be congruent BUT... • Content does not need to be realistic • "Nothing is more deceiving than our eyesight, not only in the case of objects which distance prevents the eyesight from accurately examining, but also in the case of objects which the eye perceives close at hand" - Seneca, Natural Questions 1.3.9
- 11. The Senses: Sound • Spatialize Audio! 3D space! • Ambient noise • Languages?
- 12. The Senses: Touch • Haptics (vibration from an audio clip) • Texture • Volume • Weight
- 13. The Senses: Scent and Taste? • Both of these senses have a long way to go before being adopted mainstream • For learning, it may be beneficial to add a specific scent as scent is related to memory
- 14. Agenda Technologies Used Technology Used What is it? 3DS Max and Blender 3D modeling software GIMP Photo editor for textures Unity Game Engine VRTK The holy grail-makes creating the VR experience very easy Oculus Avatar Used to create a more embodied experience—excellent for hands Photoscan Create photogrammetry models Arduino To connect a fan and spread scent Three.js A way to put a 3D model on the web and interact with it WebGL Web builder to display Unity experience online
- 15. Carrawburgh in the Past?
- 16. Carrawburgh in the Past?
- 17. Carrawburgh in the Past?
- 18. What is the Effect of Having Multisensory Effects? Benefits • Increased Interaction • Increased Engagement • Increased Presence • Increased Believability?? Consequences • More time to create • Not worth adding all the senses for all experiences • Need to know what senses make a difference
- 19. Remembering Carrawburgh: Using VR to (Re)Create the Past Website: http://debmayers.com Photoscan: https://sketchfab.com/debmayers24 Twitter: @debmayers24 Github: https://github.com/dmayers340/
Editor's Notes
- Thank you for listening to my talk. I'm currently running a study on the efficacy of VR as a learning tool, so if you are able, please sign up to participate I will open the floor up for questions or comments.
- For this talk, I will be using a case study of a fort called Carrawburgh, which I have been researching for two years. Briefly talking about some of the current display issues as well as the issues surrounding putting physical objects into a digital format and (re)creating the past, multisensory effects and VR in general as well as the application to 'being immersed or present' in a digital world.
- To give a bit of context, Carrawburgh is a Roman fort on Hadrian’s Wall that is known more for its religious properties rather than militaristic as it has three shrines to three different gods in situ. The fort was built by the Romans c. 133 AD and was used by troops until the late 4th century, and possibly longer. The fort was seen by John Horsley in 1786, and then some of the ground was exavated by John Clayton in 1876, this included the famous well to the goddess Coventina which held over 13,000 coins, many scultuptral reliefs, altars, and other misciallenous items. It was a significant find, and Coveninta, as of yet, has not been mentioned elsewhere from the Roman Empire. In 1950, Richmond and Gillam excavated the Temple to Mithras which again was quite a significant find. The cult of Mithras started in Italy in the first century AD and by the 3rd century reached its height and spread all across the Roman Empire. With 4 temples on Hadrian’s Wall. Of these, only Carrawburgh remains visible today. The other major mithraeum along the wall was at Housesteads, and that also produced many significant sculptural reliefs including the cult statue. The third shrine was a shrine to the nymphs and genius loci or god of the place, which was excavated by Smith in 1960, and as he states in his report it was a bit disappointing after the finds of Covenitna's well and the mithraeum. However, what is very interesting is that it is located less than 5 meters away from the entrance to the Mithraeum, it is theorized that the shrine to the numphs and genius loci was built when the mithraeum was not in use, as they used the materials from that shire to rebuild the temple to mithras, but left the altar to the nymphs and genius loci in place. So it is farily interesting. Most of the fort and its environs have not been excavated, and I personally believe that it holds many more secrets. However, it does have some issues.
- When you go to the site, this is what is left today. On the ground the fort area just looks like a small hill. The main attraction is the mithraeum, but the temple itself, while the only visible mithraeum on the wall, is slightly disappointing for the typical visitor. It has reconstructions of the altars, and posts that were excavated, but it is very difficult to imagine how the cult once operated. As for the other two shrines, Coventina's well, once a magnificent treasure, I believe is just a rock in the ground. And the shrine to the nymphs and genius loci, is marked by this rock. The site is hard to understand, even if English Heritage were to add more infromation placards, it would still be difficult to invision what went on at the site 1,700 years ago, and not to mention before the Romans, or after their time at the fort. And of course, being an obvious site of Roman activity, that is what the focus is on today, not the Iron age, or the time after the romans left around the 4th century. So, what could those placards say? Perhaps, the history is told somewhere off-site, where the original artefacts are displayed?
- Carrawburgh has a wealth of artifacts that have been discoved, those from Coventina's Well are located in the Clayton musuem at Chester's Roman fort, and those from the Mithraeum are mostly located in the Great norht museum Hancock in Newcastle. let's first look at those from Coventina's Well.
- Chester's Roman fort, is 6 miles away from Carrawburgh. Here you can see a few of the objects on displays. Statues are flat against the wall, with the viewer unable to see the back, some like this relief here are high up on the wall and difficult to examine closely. Many other objects are placed in glass cases, where you can see around them, but they seem to be distant from the viewer. Each artifact has a plaque which mentions where the object was found, but no further information is given. What was the context of the finds? What does the site look like?
- The Mithraeum artifacts are 27 miles away from the fort are most the artifacts from the mithraeum. In situ, the temple to Mithras, has casts of the altars, but not casts of everything found such as the mother goddess statue. If you look at the altar here, the display in the museum has actually been reconstructed as this part of the altar was broken off when it was excavated. Again, it mentions the site where the artefacts come from, however, there is no clue what the site looks like. Or images of the temple. These objects not only displaced by almost 2,000 years of time, but also by distance and context. There are no photos of Carrawburgh, what it looks like today, or where the artifacts were found and how far away it is. And this is where technology can be useful.
- Many current displays in hertiage sites and museums are often fairly boring. An artefact that you can turn around and look at from any angle is usually the most exciting type of interaction available. This is where VR and AR can come in to play. With AR you able to augment what is around, and will be the better choice for museums in general, however downloading apps is a bit cumbersome, and it relies on having phone battery, the ability to recharge the phone, GPS, or having a steady hand and not shake whilst holding the phone up. VR, can be used with individual display's or like this image here, as a dome or CAVE (CAVE automatic virtual environment). With individual HMDs, there is more option for the user to explore and interact with the environment, and in some instances, like this here, users can also use the Leap Motion and track hands to 'touch' real objects, but in the case of a dome or cave, there is the option to show many people the digital environment. Of course, these have their pro's and cons.
- While many display methods allow the user to digitally interact with an object, it is still lacking the physicality of the object. Instead of going through all the pros and cons of phsyical versus digital, I want to mainly focus on the multisensory aspects within VR and some of the ways to replicate this in VR. With individual HMDs, there is more of an option for the user to explore and interact with the environment, so let's look into the senses a bit more in depth.
- Of course, vision is the focus for many VR experiences. For most people, the eyes give the most input and it can be tricked in various ways. Our eyesight is decieving, as Seneca states in the 1st century AD our eyes can trick our brains into misjudging distance. This can also be an issue in VR when we know what we are seeing is not real, but our minds still percieve it is. This has to do with the visual fidelity of the content. However, that does not mean that the content must be displayed in a realistic style, rather that it must fit with what the user knows. The game 'Smash HIt' invovles a user throwing balls into glass, but by manipulating the angle and giving different effects the game envokes a great sense of presence.
- Sound is one of the most asked for senses inside experiments, and it is very obvious when no sound is in the VR world. When looking at a model such as this, which displays the Forum Romanum, with the Rostra up at the front. On the Rostra, speakers would stand and project their voices to the crowd, while gesturing to make all involved in the conversation. But one of the common questions being asked, is if we are to reconstruct Rome, as Fischer Consulting did here, would you have the people speaking in Latin or in English? The mithraeum in London, offers a non-technical immersive experience to visitors, but the language spoken is Latin which gives a disconnect to those hearing to what was is thought to have gone on at the Temple between the 1st and 4th centuries AD. Putting in any spatialized sound, to give more information about the environment will increase user engagement.
- Touch is one of the most missing senses when looking at ancient history. Objects are typiclaly behind glass cases, unable to be held. Yet, these objects all have some sort of texture, feel, weight. This is incredibly difficult to replicate in Vr. While, there are tools such as the Leap Motion, which allows the users hands to be tracked, it is incredibly difficult to map the physical world into the virtual. Sensors in objects help to alievate some of this, being able to track the object, but it is still not a perfect solution.
- Scent and taste are largely ignored in most digital (re)constructions for good reason. The ancient world was very messy and not very hygenic. Many smells would be much more rank than what we as modern people are used to today. But in some circumstances, such as when trying to look at memory recall, it may be helpful. However, the studies for these are very limited as of yet, and an initial look at scent in VR has not provided much more feedback compared to the base version. For taste, it also gets tricky, how do you track food to be modeled inside the environment? If the experience uses controllers, how does the user eat a piece of food?
- So there are a lot of issues creating the ancient world. And it must be asked what is the best way to represent the past? We've seen the issues of going to an archaeolgoical site which is hard to understand, and having their artefacts located in museums which do not have much information about excavation, or the site. Digital media has been used to help overcome this gap to recontextrualize these displaced objects, but objects are multisensory and at the moment the technology is limited in what it can represent for the senses. So how should we represent the past? Having visuals and sound are two things that MUST be in almost any experience. Haptics can be tricky to do, but it really helps to have physical objects inside the virutal environment to have full interaction. Scent and taste are to be determined. But there are many technologies that can help us do so. Here is a list of some that I have used over the past two years in making carrawburgh. I started 3D modelling in May 2017, and modelled all but some statues inside the mithraeum. Using photogrammetry is a great way to get real artefacts into the virtual world, but can be a lot of work to touch up the models. The main programs I used were 3DS Max, GIMP, and Unity. VRTK is a fantastic piece of software that really makes creating VR experiences for any platform extrememly easy. And in combination all these technologies helped to create an experience of Carrawburgh.
- With technology we can show change over time, this first image shows carrawburgh around 133 ad, the second around 200 and the third around 215
- Perhaps, at the moment, we should all be exploring different display methods and testing what workds and does not. For carrawbrugh, having multiple interpretaions is very helpful, and showing change over time. By adding audio effects of torches crackling, people chanting, and a god voice, it is completley possible to immerse people into the temple to Mithras. The haptics vibration and sound add, but equally also can be dsitracting.
- Perhaps, at the moment, we should all be exploring different display methods and testing what workds and does not. For carrawbrugh, having multiple interpretaions is very helpful, and showing change over time. By adding audio effects of torches crackling, people chanting, and a god voice, it is completley possible to immerse people into the temple to Mithras. The haptics vibration and sound add, but equally also can be dsitracting.
- Perhaps, at the moment, we should all be exploring different display methods and testing what workds and does not. For carrawbrugh, having multiple interpretaions is very helpful, and showing change over time. By adding audio effects of torches crackling, people chanting, and a god voice, it is completley possible to immerse people into the temple to Mithras. The haptics vibration and sound add, but equally also can be dsitracting.
- Thank you for listening to my talk. I'm currently running a study on the efficacy of VR as a learning tool, so if you are able, please sign up to participate I will open the floor up for questions or comments.