Title : Immersive 3D visualization systems for culture and education purposes

Project Lead : Fabio Antonelli From : CREATE-NET (ITALY)

Dates : from 2014-05-14 14:44:58 to 2015-02-03 09:51:40

Description :

Motivation and objectives :
Society around the world has evolved with the barrage of ICT technologies. Some sectors evolved rapidly, making use of these technologies and taking advantage of the opportunities that have appeared. Other sectors, had a slower evolution and there is still work to do. In this project, we propose a use case involving Museums. Many European museums are working hard to attract visitors and to bring them innovative ways to consume culture and the contents exhibited in their rooms. We can now find several organizations that have brought together the different stakeholders involved, to find new solutions and proposals to guarantee the future of the museums, and contribute to the preservation of European and local history, art and culture. CREATE-NET is proposing in this project a new approach of immersive and realistic remote visits of museums. The project will make use of latest 3D technologies and advanced communication infrastructures to research on remote 3D visits of museums. The main objective is to find a system capable to allow visitors in one museum, visualize in an immersive way objects that are located in another museum. This experience has to be in real-time allowing interaction between visitors and the personnel in charge of the tour. The MUSE project presents a proof of concept at different levels: network infrastructure configuration and requirements, evaluation of user experience and 3D contents visualization, economical viability of the solution proposed. CREATE-NET will study jointly with the i2CAT Foundation, the different elements involved in this project (3D camera, 3D display and capture hardware, video network transmission software, among others) in order to propose a single use case to be tested under real conditions. In particular, the service will be experimented in a real setting together with the support and involvement of the Museum of Science in Trento (MuSe) as service validator and as potential service adopter. In base with the results and conclusions obtained it will be evaluated the possibility of implementing this solution as part of the current services and contents to be exhibited in European museums. It is expected that in a near future, visitors of a museum (e.g.: students, families, etc.) will be able to visit linked contents, but distant in space, in a interactive and immersive manner.

Teams :
The proposing group of CREATE-NET is the "Future Media Solutions" (FraME) application area of CREATE-NET . This application area aims at supporting and sustaining the media and creative industries in exploring, prototyping and validating new ICT services for the production, management and distribution of digital content that leverages on open platforms and the availability of future internet network infrastructures. The application area combines internal expertise on networked media and pervasive computing with software prototyping and engineering capabilities in order to support and complement research activities through an experimental approach.

Dates :
starting date : 01 November, 2014
ending date : 16 January, 2015

Facilities descriptions :
http://visionair-browser.g-scop.grenoble-inp.fr/visionair/Browser/Catalogs/DML.SP.html

Recordings & Results :
Society around the world has evolved with the barrage of ICT technologies. Some sectors evolved rapidly, making use of these technologies and taking advantage of the opportunities that have appeared. Other sectors, had a slower evolution and there is still work to do. In this project, we propose a use case involving Museums. Many European museums are working hard to attract visitors and to bring them innovative ways to consume culture and the contents exhibited in their rooms. We can now find several organizations that have brought together the different stakeholders involved, to find new solutions and proposals to guarantee the future of the museums, and contribute to the preservation of European and local history, art and culture. CREATE-NET is proposing in this project a new approach of immersive and realistic remote visits of museums. The project will make use of latest 3D technologies and advanced communication infrastructures to research on remote 3D visits of museums. The main objective is to find a system capable to allow visitors in one museum, visualize in an immersive way objects that are located in another museum. This experience has to be in real-time allowing interaction between visitors and the personnel in charge of the tour. The MUSE project presents a proof of concept at different levels: network infrastructure configuration and requirements, evaluation of user experience and 3D contents visualization, economical viability of the solution proposed. CREATE-NET will study jointly with the i2CAT Foundation, the different elements involved in this project (3D camera, 3D display and capture hardware, video network transmission software, among others) in order to propose a single use case to be tested under real conditions. In particular, the service will be experimented in a real setting together with the support and involvement of the Museum of Science in Trento (MuSe) and Fabra i Coats in Barcelona, as service validators and as potential service adopters. The activity was mainly focused on the setup of a 3D videoconference where attendees share an immersive experience based on 3D object visualization (3D cameras and 3D glasses). Some simple examples of how the system is capable of emulating the three dimensional feeling in the user and how user perceptions are affected by it have been presented, in order to evaluate potential usage of such technology as a support for cultural and educational activities.

Conclusions :
The 3D conference between MUSE in Trento and Fabra i Coats in Barcelona has been successfully setup. The quality of the video was very good and the 3D feeling perceived by the participants was very strong on both sides, even if limited to the monitor area. MUSE director and MUSE ITC manager were both impressed by the result and they proposed further investigation and future joint collaboration for setting up some kind of artistic experience based on such technology.




Project Images :






Other project resources :

MOV_0048.mp4