Virtual Heritage Tools Projects Hopes and Challenges

1. VIRTUAL HERITAGE: TOOLS, PROJECTS, HOPES AND CHALLENGES
23.03.21-NSW LOCAL STUDIES LIBRARIANS GROUP-ZOOM
Emeritus Professor
Erik Champion
erikchampion@gmail.com

2. ERIK CHAMPION
RETHINKING VIRTUAL PLACES (Indiana University Press, 2021)
Co-editing with Dr Christina Lee, Screen Tourism and Affective Landscapes, 16 authors..
Recent books:
Organic Design in Twentieth-Century Nordic Architecture (Routledge, 2019).
Edited The Phenomenology of Real and Virtual Places (Routledge, 2018).
Co-edited Cultural Heritage Infrastructures in Digital Humanities (Routledge, 2017).
Critical Gaming: Interactive History and Virtual Heritage (Routledge 2016).
Co-edited Cultural Heritage Infrastructures in Digital Humanities (Routledge, 2017).
Previous: Game Mods: Design, Theory & Criticism (ETC Press, 2012), Playing with the Past
(Springer, 2011).

3. intangible heritage=“practices,
representations, expressions, knowledge,
skills – as well as the instruments,
objects, artefacts and cultural spaces
associated therewith – that communities,
groups and, in some cases, individuals
recognize as part of their cultural
heritage” (UNESCO 2003).
VH=VR + CULTURAL HERITAGE
(ALONSO ADDISON 2008).

4. VH IS #2
Champion [2008]: ‘the attempt to convey not
just the appearance but also the meaning and
significance of cultural artefacts and the
associated social agency that designed and
used them, through the use of interactive and
immersive digital media.’
NB I distinguish between digital & virtual
heritage.

5. DH IS TEXT-HEAVY VIZ. LIGHT & PEOPLE-ADVERSE
•So why Virtual Heritage? Why should we do it?
•How to engage and educate on: cultural significance
•What to preserve: survey data; models; cultural knowledge; remains; paradata; audience
understanding feedback?
•When to stop: artistry, findings, audience interaction, experts, technical platforms..
•Where to find .. Run into a good virtual heritage project lately?

6. UCLA/MASS. 3D MODELLING-NEH WORKSHOP 2015-6
Cloud-based AR data, projects, software… gone

7. 140+3D FORMATS!!

8. Conference/event name VSMM CAA CIPA EUROMED Digital Heritage
Accessible articles & year of publication
Year No. Year No. Year No. Year No. Year No.
2017 55 2015 117 2017 111 2016 105 2015 270
2016 65 2014 73 2015 82 2014 84 2013 211
2014 53 2013 50 2013 112 2012 95 - -
Total 173 240 305 284 481
Articles reference 3D heritage assets 31 38 79 61 55
References include
(a) Accessible 3D contents 0 1 3 1 4
(b) Accessible Videos 1 2 1 2 6
(c) Other accessible visual materials (VR
models, photographs, images of 3D
models etc.).
1 4 6 5 17
(d) Non-accessible/dead web links 3 0 5 3 8
3D MODELS in Journals

9. Hafizur Rahaman

10. UNESCO CHAIR IN CULTURAL HERITAGE & VISUALISATION
1. Create a network to use & advise on 3D models of
World Heritage Sites & show how 3D models can be
employed in teaching & research.
2. Build capacity through community workshops,
learning materials, distributing the teaching
resources digitally at no cost the end user, train
research students, postdocs, research fellows.
3. Recommend long-term archive guidelines, linking 3D
models to scholarly publications, scholarly resources
& infrastructures.
4. Disseminate the results of research activities at
conferences & workshops, via online papers,
applications & learning materials.
5. Cooperate closely with UNESCO on relevant
activities.

11. JEFFREY JACOBSON, PUBLICVR.ORG
2O13

12. 1950s-62 Sensorama
2018 Selfie+HMD+Pano-movie
1965-8 Sword of Damocles
1952 Cinerama (1939 Vitarama) 1992 CAVE

13. PHD, ARCHITECTURE & GEOMATICS
(ENGINEERING)
UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE 2001-
2004, Australian Research Council
Industry grant, industry partner:
Lonely Planet.
The online browser-embedded
multiplayer PhD environments were
selected to represent the University
of Melbourne at Supercomputing
2004 Boston. The author was
selected to attend Young VR
Researcher KAIST, won a Dean’s
Prize and best virtual heritage
paper, VSMM 2003 conference,
Canada.

14. A BLURRED SPECTRUM
https://alisonjamesart.com/2017/03/12/what-is-a-virtuality /
Milgram Takemura Utsumi & Kishino (1994)

15. REAL AR=3D AWARENESS, DOESN’T FLOAT

16. PROMISING TRENDS
1. VR equipment more consumer-level
& component-based.
2. Smartphone=stereoscopic viewer
& PC (i.e. Samsung Gear).
3. User creation frameworks
improves access..

17. AR SOFTWARE-ARKIT ARCORE ARTOOLKIT
1. https://artivive.com/ ..build the community around augmented reality art
2. https://aframe.io/
3. Other https://sourceforge.net/software/augmented-reality/free-version/
4. https://www.goodfirms.co/blog/best-free-open-source-augmented-reality-
software
5. https://holokit.io/
6. https://experience.briovr.com
7. https://www.adobe.com/products/aero.html (au)
8. https://www.ptc.com/en/products/vuforia/vuforia-engine
(https://makaka.org/unity-assets/Vuforia)
https://www.8thwall.com/

18. VR CREATION TOOLS
A-frame
Unity game engine
Unreal game engine
Sketchup
Sketchfab
SteamVR
Minecraft VR
https://sketchfab.com/virtual-reality
https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/vr/

19. Active Classrooms
Non-Playing Characters (NPCs) informed by gesture posture etc.
NPCs

21. Shown at VSMM2012 conference, Milan, Italy 2012.
Chinese Taoism Touch Screen by Li (Neil) Wang and Erik Champion.
TOUCHSCREEN TAOISM

22. Evaluation Content (intro, 3 Archaeol., 3
gamic)
Objective: Compare to
Task Performance 6 objects to find Understanding
Cultural
Understanding
6 questions x 3 virtual
environments (learn by observing,
conversing with bots, activity)
Which VE most challenging to
explore, find or change?
Preference, demographics,
task performance
Presence Survey
(rank 1 to 7)
Most: interesting; interactive;
related to ‘Mayan’; inhabited; in
the presence of Mayan culture
Demographics, to task
performance; find
personal preference in
answers, rank 7 VEs
Environmental recall Shadows; real people; height of
locals vs tourists; number of
people
Demographics and to task
performance and to
understanding
Subjective Experience
(of time passing)
In which VE did time pass
quickest? How fast did they
update the screen?
Subjective preference and
to demographics
PHD: U. OF MELBOURNE, LONELY PLANET
2001-4

23. GAMES: GOALS, CHALLENGES, RISKS, STRATEGIES, REWARDS
goals
challenges strategies
rewards
risks

24. GAMES: GOALS, CHALLENGES, RISKS, STRATEGIES, REWARDS
goals
challenges strategies
rewards
risks

25. SUSANNAH EMERY-SIMS MACHINIMA

26. MASSAGE CHAIR + CAR RACING BIOFEEDBACK

27. 2006 HIEROGLYPH LEARNING -
MORRAOWIND

28. Curtin 2016, Makathon (left); CAA2017 Atlanta (below, right).
Digital Cities, Digital Humanities Summer School: Game Prototypes, Politecnico, Italy 2018; 2019.
GAME DESIGN
WORKSHOPS

29. CREATING A SIMPLE GAME
What is the goal? Why try to achieve it?
Why is it an engaging challenge?
Competition/mastery, chance, imitation,
controlling vertigo/rush of movement/flight?
Feedback system, affordances + constraints,
rewards and punishments?
How to level up/advance via mechanics?
Offers a range of strategies, options?
What is learnt during or after the
experience?

30. XR IN STUDENT WORKSHOPS
Heritage Game Workshops
Student AR work Museum of
Cinema, Turin Italy

32. Dr. Hafizur Rahaman
Smartphone camera
recognizes and speaks
native words for flora or
fauna

33. IKROM NISHANBAEV, 3D, GIS, SEMANTIC WEB

35. PANO-ARCHIVE, BEATA DAWSON

36. RUSAILA BAZLAMIT,
PHD STUDENT, (& ANDREW HUTCHISON) VSMM2017
DESIGN ACTIVISM, PALESTINE
RUSAILA BAZLAMIT

37. DUYFKEN,
MAFKERESEB BEKELE

39. XR TOURISM https://www.hidden.no/ IAN BRODIE

40. Intern project Agathe Limouzy Toulouse (Collaborative Learning)

41. RETHINKING VIRTUAL PLACES 2021 Indiana Uni Press

42. SCREEN TOURISM
Oz tourism predicted to gather $143 billion
this year (Ludlow & Housego, 2019).
Nearly 30% of international tourists visit a
museum or gallery (Ludlow, 2019).
Can gaming /XR link heritage and cultural
tourism? What are the iXD challenges?
Ludlow, M. (2019). Luxury destinations luring the 'big fish' travellers
to Australia. Financial Review, 17 December 2018.
Ludlow, M., & Housego, L. (2019). Tourism now employs one in 13
Australians. Financial Review, 15 August 2019.
https://poland.pl/arts/lifestyle/harry-potter-magic-in-poland/
SCREEN TOURISM

43. SUMMARY
1. Collaboration may have saved earlier VRML technologies
2. Extended reality *promises* to simplify development
3. Gamification underplays the importance of mechanics
4. Great potential with serious games and entertainment interfaces
5. Augmented Reality may be the next big thing?
twitter @nzerik email erikchampion@gmail.com