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The Petralona Cave, which local inhabitants discovered by chance in 1959, is a remarkable natural and cultural landmark close to the village of Petralona, in the Chalkidiki peninsula of Greece. The site has gained global recognition for the discovery of a remarkably well-preserved Palaeolithic human skull, unearthed in 1960; it also holds archaeological and palaeontological significance. In this paper, the researchers introduce the Petralona Cave Virtual Museum: an innovative project whose mission is to increase public awareness and comprehension of the site. Our approach goes beyond mere replication of the physical museum located close to the cave; instead, the objective is to create an independent and comprehensive experience that is accessible to all visitors, irrespective of their ability to visit the site in person. Our methodology involved the documentation of the site and its history, analysis of user requirements, development of use cases to steer the design process, as well as architectural designs creation, itineraries and findings digitisation, and architectural structure finalisation. The Virtual Museum provides a well-organised frame structure that serves as an efficient gateway to the content, making navigation easy for visitors. Thanks to various presentation methods, including videos, high-quality images, interactive maps, animated content, interactive 3D models, plus searchable item libraries, among others, users are empowered to create a highly personalised navigation plan; thus the Virtual Museum experience is comparable to visiting the physical museum or cultural site. Cutting-edge digitisation techniques were employed to create highly detailed 3D models of the site. The Petralona Cave Virtual Museum is expected to offer an immersive experience, engaging diverse audiences; the interactive and educational exploration provides highly innovative access to archaeological knowledge. The visibility of the Petralona site is amplified and there is a significant contribution to knowledge dissemination about this important cultural heritage site.

Copyright of Virtual Archaeology Review is the property of Virtual Archaeology Review and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The cultural heritage sector increasingly integrates augmented and virtual reality (VR) solutions to meet dissemination and interpretation needs for its collections. As research in the field grows, the required entertainment and learning impacts of such applications are rising. This study presents a VR museum that aims to facilitate an understanding of cultural heritage. More specifically, an exhibition was designed, curated and developed in a VR environment based on a framework that encourages the public’s interaction with the artworks and experiential learning through activities that utilize VR functionalities in a meaningful way. This framework was applied in a contemporary art museum where the description of artistic concepts is not always obvious to the general public due to the abstract forms of the artworks or the particularities of different artistic movements. This paper focuses on the application development and three user experience evaluations (museum experts, technical experts and general audience). The results were positive regarding the perceived sense of control, usability and the feelings of the user, including their sense of entertainment. Additionally, the participants valued the educational value of the developed activity types and their usefulness. Moreover, the users were interested in exploring the cultural heritage content available in the exhibition, and they would suggest the application to colleagues or friends.

This study revolves around primary and secondary school visual arts teachers’ cultural and critical readings on their VR museum experience through object and representation. As part of the in-service training and research project, the study was carried out in the provinces of Çanakkale, Erzincan, Kayseri, Diyarbakır, Giresun, Mersin, Denizli, which were selected from seven regions of Turkey within a seven-month period. 508 primary and secondary school visual arts teachers participated in the study. The study is a case study and teachers’ readings related to the object and representation in the virtual museum and their VR museum experiences formed the units of analysis in the study. The data of the study was collected through worksheets, pre-evaluation forms, participant diaries and focus group interviews with voluntary teachers and content analysis method was employed to analyse the data. In the study, teachers were motivated to incorporate social and personal contexts into their readings of the object-space-representation. The results denoted that the activity enhanced teachers’ learning experiences in terms of personal and professional contexts. Although teachers highlighted that VR museum experiences could not offer much more rich experiences than the actual museum visits, they believed that it could be effective for visual arts classes and be blended with various learning activities given that the virtual museum experience offers the possibility of exploring a museum without a barrier of distance and incite enthusiasm and learning interest through digital technologies (e.g., sound, motion, immersive experience).

The paper presents a process of testing a created virtual reality application for displaying the "Hujra", a room for students of the 17th century madrassa in the area of the Silk Road, together with interactive objects. The designed 3D objects had sufficiently small file sizes to be introduced into virtual reality, and the fully mobile application worked effectively using smartphones within the price group available to the average user. The application was presented to a group of students and researchers from Kyrgyzstan. In addition, objects not belonging to the Islamic culture were introduced into the students' room. Pilot tests confirmed the usefulness of the proposed solution of 3D modelling. Interviews with the participants of the experiment and the results of a survey showed that the virtual reality application was a very attractive form of presentation, especially for people belonging to Generation Z. The combination of the complexity of the project and its high availability via smartphones was considered a successful solution by those questioned.

The cultural heritage sector increasingly integrates augmented and virtual reality (VR) solutions to meet dissemination and interpretation needs for its collections. As research in the field grows, the required entertainment and learning impacts of such applications are rising. This study presents a VR museum that aims to facilitate an understanding of cultural heritage. More specifically, an exhibition was designed, curated and developed in a VR environment based on a framework that encourages the public's interaction with the artworks and experiential learning through activities that utilize VR functionalities in a meaningful way. This framework was applied in a contemporary art museum where the description of artistic concepts is not always obvious to the general public due to the abstract forms of the artworks or the particularities of different artistic movements. This paper focuses on the application development and three user experience evaluations (museum experts, technical experts and general audience). The results were positive regarding the perceived sense of control, usability and the feelings of the user, including their sense of entertainment. Additionally, the participants valued the educational value of the developed activity types and their usefulness. Moreover, the users were interested in exploring the cultural heritage content available in the exhibition, and they would suggest the application to colleagues or friends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, a growing number of museums have adopted digital media, both as an enhancement of exhibitions of real artifacts and as an alternative to traditional display methods. The digital acquisition of artifacts generates accurate 3D replicas that can be displayed via different digital media. With an increase in immersive technologies in the cultural heritage (CH) domain, it is common to see digital artifacts presented in Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). This paper presents two user studies conducted in different locations evaluating the use of an AR application in the portrayal of the Mjällby Crucifix artifact. This paper presents the overall results from both user studies evaluating and discussing the AR application on a number of different aspects on a 7-point Likert scale: (1) understanding the artifact, (2) ease of use, (3) object feeling part of reality, (4) perceived visual quality of the object, (5) overall satisfaction experience, and (6) willingness to download the AR application. The results have been compared between genders, age groups, and previous experience with AR. Potential benefits and disadvantages of AR experiences in the context of a museum exhibition were also gathered in free text from the visitors.

The paper presents a process of testing a created virtual reality application for displaying the "Hujra", a room for students of the 17th century madrassa in the area of the Silk Road, together with interactive objects. The designed 3D objects had sufficiently small file sizes to be introduced into virtual reality, and the fully mobile application worked effectively using smartphones within the price group available to the average user. The application was presented to a group of students and researchers from Kyrgyzstan. In addition, objects not belonging to the Islamic culture were introduced into the students' room. Pilot tests confirmed the usefulness of the proposed solution of 3D modelling. Interviews with the participants of the experiment and the results of a survey showed that the virtual reality application was a very attractive form of presentation, especially for people belonging to Generation Z. The combination of the complexity of the project and its high availability via smartphones was considered a successful solution by those questioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, a growing number of museums have adopted digital media, both as an enhancement of exhibitions of real artifacts and as an alternative to traditional display methods. The digital acquisition of artifacts generates accurate 3D replicas that can be displayed via different digital media. With an increase in immersive technologies in the cultural heritage (CH) domain, it is common to see digital artifacts presented in Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). This paper presents two user studies conducted in different locations evaluating the use of an AR application in the portrayal of the Mjällby Crucifix artifact. This paper presents the overall results from both user studies evaluating and discussing the AR application on a number of different aspects on a 7-point Likert scale: (1) understanding the artifact, (2) ease of use, (3) object feeling part of reality, (4) perceived visual quality of the object, (5) overall satisfaction experience, and (6) willingness to download the AR application. The results have been compared between genders, age groups, and previous experience with AR. Potential benefits and disadvantages of AR experiences in the context of a museum exhibition were also gathered in free text from the visitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Eurasian Education & Culture is the property of Ayse Burcu Ulusoy and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose. The aim of the paper is to present the work the Croatian History Museum (CHM) has done to preserve cultural heritage and the use of its digital strategy to present that work. This was applied in the CHM’s plan as the digital editorial board was formed to oversee and curate the Museum’s presence on the social media and the internet. Approach/methodology. The paper showcases the increase of online visitors and users that consume cultural heritage on online platforms through the examples of virtual exhibitions, social media posts and gathered data. The maintenance of a specifically targeted virtual identity of a museum helped in this regard, which is evident in the increase of online visitors. Data was gathered and interpreted by using Google Analytics and Instagram analytical data by the author throughout 2020, and the data suggest that digital museums have a lot of potential, in particular with modern online users. Findings. The data presented in the paper shows that the online visitors were interested in the work of the Museum and that the promotion thorough social media generated online visitors as much as a real-life exhibition. It shows the interest in digital museums and the promotion of museum work online. Research limitations. The author recognizes that the data presented in the paper is gathered only from one source as the author could not access data from other similar institutions which would have been used for comparison. Originality/value. Through empirical examples, the paper showcases how useful a virtual museum can be in raising interest in cultural heritage. This is especially important in times when people cannot attend large social gatherings. Also, the paper describes the events and the work guidelines given at times of crisis such as earthquakes, which the author witnessed himself and participated in.

(1) Background: Several opportunities have appeared for the dissemination of culture and heritage thanks in part to the widespread use of information and communications technologies. Virtual museums have appeared as innovative technological products but often lack an evaluation of the impact that they have and their success in achieving their purpose. In this sense, this work seeks to evaluate the impact of a virtual museum on users' attitudes toward cultural heritage. (2) Methods: We used a factorial design of 2 (direction of thoughts: positive vs. negative) × 2 (presence level: high vs. low) × 2 (virtual museum vs. interactive website). (3) Results: Attitudes toward heritage can change as a function of a multimedia experience, thought favorability, and presence. In a virtual museum, when general attitudes are evaluated, a sense of high psychological presence reduces the effect that thoughts (especially when negative) have on attitudes. However, in the case of visiting an interactive website, the effect of the direction of thoughts on attitudes occurred regardless of conditions of high or low presence. Similar tendencies are observed for specific attitudinal objects. (4) Conclusion: A virtual museum can have different effects depending on the interaction of important variables from the virtual reality literature and not only the classic main effects. Recommendations for interventions and future practical and theoretical work are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cultural heritage (CH) sector has always been looking for preeminent ways to improve visitors' interactions with their collections through interactive technologies such as applications and websites. However, economic inequality between developed and developing countries hinders the effective and widespread deployment of interactive technologies; therefore, there is a lack of understanding about how visitors interact with such applications in developing countries. Our research aims to understand the current user experience (UX) practices with CH interactive technologies in developing and developed countries and discuss how to improve the interactive application design for museums' user experience in developing countries. We conducted two field surveys to examine the current UX practices with audio guides and websites at national CH museums in Vietnam and Australia. Additionally, short interviews with interactive service providers and museum interactive service managers confirm the current UX practices and help to fill the UX gaps in developing countries. Our work complements the wealth of knowledge about designing good UX in developed countries and concludes that UX requirements are likely similar between developing and developed countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to show the presentation layer of a virtual museum for cultural heritage artefacts. The three-dimensional representation and the main components of a 3D environment of the virtual museum are discussed. The composing 3D objects in the virtual museum, with different viewing options, as well as an implementation of a three-dimensional representation and the means for greater realism of the three-dimensional image, are described

In the era of the global pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus, 3D digitisation of selected museum artefacts is becoming more and more frequent practice, but the vast majority is performed by specialised teams. The paper presents the results of comparative studies of 3D digital models of the same museum artefacts from the Silk Road area generated by two completely different technologies: Structure from Motion (SfM)—a method belonging to the so-called low-cost technologies—and by Structured-light 3D Scanning (3D SLS). Moreover, procedural differences in data acquisition and their processing to generate three-dimensional models are presented. Models built using a point cloud were created from data collected in the Afrasiyab museum in Samarkand (Uzbekistan) during "The 1st Scientific Expedition of the Lublin University of Technology to Central Asia" in 2017. Photos for creating 3D models in SfM technology were taken during a virtual expedition carried out under the "3D Digital Silk Road" program in 2021. The obtained results show that the quality of the 3D models generated with SfM differs from the models from the technology (3D SLS), but they may be placed in the galleries of the vitrual museum. The obtained models from SfM do not have information about their size, which means that they are not fully suitable for archiving purposes of cultural heritage, unlike the models from SLS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preserving the cultural and historical heritage of various world nations, and their thorough presentation is a long-term commitment of scholars and researchers working in many areas. From centuries every generation is aimed at keeping record about its labor, so that it could be revised and studied by the next generations. New information and multimedia technologies have been developed during the past couple of years, which introduced new methods of preservation, maintenance and distribution of the huge amounts of collected material. This article aims to present the virtual museum, an advanced system managing diverse collections of digital objects that are organized in various ways by a complex specialized functionality. The management of digital content requires a well-designed architecture that embeds services for content presentation, management, and administration. All elements of the system architecture are interrelated, thus the accuracy of each element is of great importance. These systems suffer from the lack of tools for intelligent data curation with the capacity to validate data from different sources and to add value to data. This paper proposes a solution for intelligent data curation that can be implemented in a virtual museum in order to provide opportunity to observe the valuable historical specimens in a proper way. The solution is focused on the process of validation and verification to prevent the duplication of records for digital objects, in order to guarantee the integrity of data and more accurate retrieval of knowledge.

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused service disruptions in numerous sectors of human activity. Museums and cultural institutions have unfortunately been among them. However, the emergency has put insiders in a position to find solutions to make the works usable in digital mode, applying research and technologies that have been the subject of research over the last twenty years. In this contribution, a case study will be considered related to an archaeological site museum of a Roman villa, which suffered from usability problems long before the pandemic. Some possible interventions will be listed to improve readability and communication with potential visitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: Several opportunities have appeared for the dissemination of culture and heritage thanks in part to the widespread use of information and communications technologies. Virtual museums have appeared as innovative technological products but often lack an evaluation of the impact that they have and their success in achieving their purpose. In this sense, this work seeks to evaluate the impact of a virtual museum on users’ attitudes toward cultural heritage. (2) Methods: We used a factorial design of 2 (direction of thoughts: positive vs. negative) × 2 (presence level: high vs. low) × 2 (virtual museum vs. interactive website). (3) Results: Attitudes toward heritage can change as a function of a multimedia experience, thought favorability, and presence. In a virtual museum, when general attitudes are evaluated, a sense of high psychological presence reduces the effect that thoughts (especially when negative) have on attitudes. However, in the case of visiting an interactive website, the effect of the direction of thoughts on attitudes occurred regardless of conditions of high or low presence. Similar tendencies are observed for specific attitudinal objects. (4) Conclusion: A virtual museum can have different effects depending on the interaction of important variables from the virtual reality literature and not only the classic main effects. Recommendations for interventions and future practical and theoretical work are presented.

Virtual reality technology has grown significantly in recent years. The arrival of Head Mounted Displays (HDM) on the market for end-users has positioned these technologies as a new channel to promote new simulated or contextualized experiences. We have used the design and creation strategy to develop a virtual reality experience for the Oculus GO and Quest HDM. We digitized 30 pieces from nine local museums to provide an experience guided by a character that represents the main artisan work of the local region. A usability test was performed, showing that participants felt a high degree of immersion and realism. They were able to complete the assigned tasks, and results suggest that the software meets the main objective. Furthermore, the creation of this virtual reality (VR) experience has shown how important it is to make users a part of the creation process, as well as to develop a process to make the software useful to them and other users. Some recommendations are made based on the experience of the development, and comments are given on each step of the design and creation strategy.

This paper considers the advantages and disadvantages of digital technologies in the field of preservation of cultural heritage. The methods of creating of virtual cultural storages do not always allow to preserve the true reflection of memory, history and tradition the same way a real museum does and consequently, the axiological meaning of the term heritage is lost. In contrast, virtual museums and digital reconstructions of cultural artefacts help to protect and preserve information which otherwise would be lost. In this paper, we analyze the properties of virtual forms of cultural heritage preservations in the context of interaction between contemporary society and cultural tradition.

Today the ICTs are favourable additions to museum exhibitions. This work aims to realize an innovative system of digital exploitation of artefacts in the National Archaeological Museum of Marche (MANaM), in order to create a shared museum that will improve the knowledge of cultural contents through the paradigm "learning by interacting" and "edutainment". The main novelty is the implementation of stand-alone multimedia installations for digital artefacts that combine real and virtual scenarios in order to enrich the experience, the knowledge and the multi-sensory perception. A Digital Library (DL) is created using Close Range Photogrammetry (CRP) techniques applied to 21 archaeological artefacts belonging to different categories. Enriched with other data (texts, images, multimedia), all 3D models flow into the cloud data server from which are recalled in the individual exhibitions. In particular, we have chosen three types of technological solutions: VISUAL, TACTILE, SPATIAL. All the solutions take into account the possibility of group interaction, allowing the participation of the interaction to an appropriate number of users. Sharing the experience enables greater involvement, generating communicative effectiveness much higher than it would get from a lonely visit. From the "Museum Visitors Behaviour Analysis" we obtain a survey about users' needs and efficiency of the interactive solutions. The main result of this work is the educational impact in terms of increase in visitors, specially students, learning increase of historical and cultural content, greater user involvement during the visit to the museum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the advantages and disadvantages of digital technologies in the field of preservation of cultural heritage. The methods of creating of virtual cultural storages do not always allow to preserve the true reflection of memory, history and tradition the same way a real museum does and consequently, the axiological meaning of the term heritage is lost. In contrast, virtual museums and digital reconstructions of cultural artefacts help to protect and preserve information which otherwise would be lost. In this paper, we analyze the properties of virtual forms of cultural heritage preservations in the context of interaction between contemporary society and cultural tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The challenge of contemporary museums is to make content accessible to a wider audience; in this way information related to the good becomes more communicative and usable in order to enhance its uniqueness. Accessibility goes through an innovative communication of content: the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) that are increasingly part of people’s daily lives. Communication in most cases occurs visually, so ICTs are increasingly focusing on a rethinking of this expressive form; images become a better support for high-quality data transfer.