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Digital heritage projects are an important tool in safeguarding cultural heritage and making it available to future generations. The work presented here synthesises 3D modelling techniques with the process of digitising artefacts. New digital reconstructions can be created based on authentic data. These are then implemented in various immersive learning opportunities, such as interactive activities and engaging virtual worlds. This is applied to the restoration of two Pictish symbol stones used in an online colour configurator tool and a virtual environment. Publisher PDF

Developments in digital infrastructures and expanding digital literacies lower barriers for museums and visitor centres to provide new interactive experiences with their collections and heritage. With virtual reality more accessible, heritage institutions are eager to find out how this technology can create new methods in interpretation, learning and visualisation. This paper reviews a virtual reality framework implemented into exhibits in three cultural heritage centres. By taking advantage of existing visitor digital literacies, the exhibits provided accessible immersive exploratory experiences for inter-generational audiences. The digital framework developed is a template for virtual reality content interaction that is both intuitive and powerful. The exhibits include digital reconstructions of physical scenes using game engines for a convincing visual experience. We contextualise the logic behind a virtual reality setup for the separate institutions, how they assisted with the narrative as well as if an immersive digital environment provided a more profound response in users. Our aim is to communicate approaches, methodologies and content used to overcome the challenge of presenting a period in history to a modern audience, while using emergent technology to build connections and disseminate knowledge that is memorable and profound. Postprint

This paper discusses how a digital reconstruction of the Scottish capital of Edinburgh around the year 1544 was created and communicated to the public. It explores the development and reception of the Virtual Time Binoculars platform – a system for delivering virtual reality heritage apps suitable for use on most smartphones. The Virtual Time Binoculars system is placed in the context of earlier research into mobile heritage experiences, including Situated Simulations (Liestøl [3]) and the Mirrorshades Project (Davies et al. [4]). The eventual virtual reality app is compared with other means of viewing the historic reconstruction, including online videos and an interactive museum and educational exhibit. It outlines the historical and technical challenges of modelling Edinburgh’s sixteenth-century cityscape, and of distributing the eventual reconstruction in an immersive fashion that works safely and effectively on smartphones on the streets of the modern city. Finally, it considers the implications of this project for future developments in mobile exploration of historic scenes. Postprint

Museums publicly display collections in a physical space to relay narratives and concepts to their audiences. Progressive technologies in an exhibition can bring in varying demographics and gather higher footfall for a museum as well as present digital heritage interpretation in an innovative manner. A mixed media exhibition can facilitate subjects with limited physical resources or difficult to display pieces as well as the visual landscape the objects were found within. A combination of Virtual Reality headsets, 3D digitized objects, digitally reconstructed archaeological sites alongside traditional object displays as methods of interpretation substantiate research in techniques and usability as well as challenges of recoup cost and digital literacies. This paper investigates the methodology, technology and evaluation of the mixed media exhibition Picts & Pixels presented by Culture Perth and Kinross and the Open Virtual Worlds research team at the University of St Andrews at the Perth Museum and Art Gallery in summer 2017. Postprint

Cultural heritage artefacts act as a gateway helping people learn about their social traditions and history. However, preserving these artefacts faces many difficulties, including potential destruction or damage from global warming, wars and conflicts, and degradation from day-to-day use. In addition, artefacts can only be present in one place at a time, and many of them can not be exhibited due to the limited physical space of museums. The digital domain offers opportunities to capture and represent the form and texture of these artefacts and to overcome the previously mentioned constraints by allowing people to access and interact with them on multiple platforms (mobile devices, tablets and personal computers) and network regimes. Through two experiments we study the subjective perception of the fidelity of 3D models in web browsers in order to discover perceptible resolution thresholds. This helps us create models of reasonable graphical complexity that could be fetched on the biggest range of end devices. It also enables us to design systems which efficiently optimise the user experience by adapting their behaviour based upon user perception, model characteristics and digital infrastructure. Postprint

Climate change poses a real and present threat to cultural heritage. Responses to climate change have focussed on strategies for prevention and physical protection. Developments in technology have made possible a new type of virtual museum that actively supports the work of museums and enables the creation of immersive digital exhibits. This paper proposes that it is important to address the role that community museums play in the digital preservation of natural and cultural heritage. It focusses on the contribution of virtual museums and proposes a distributed virtual museum architecture to support digital preservation.The architecture addresses both the need for high quality local interactions that enables preservation and the need for a global infrastructure that makes the results accessible and enables the development of links between communities. Publisher PDF

This work discusses the methodology for the design, development and deployment of a virtual 19th-century Fish Curing Yard as an immersive museum installation. The museum building now occupies the same space where the curing yard was over 100 years prior, hence the deployment of a virtual reconstruction of the curing yard in a game engine enables the museum visitors to explore the virtual world from equivalent vantage points in the real world. The project methodology achieves the goal of maximising user experience for visitors while minimising cost for the museum, and focus group evaluations of the system revealed the success of the interaction-free design with snackable content. A major implication of the ndings is that museums can provide compelling and informative experiences that enable visitors to travel back in time with minimal interaction and relatively low cost systems. Postprint

This paper outlines the current state of learning, the problems arising and research needed by developers and educators using Virtual Worlds as an intelligent learning environment. Artificially intelligent avatars are required for virtual on-line problem and case based learning. However, the use of AI requires supportive frameworks, models and both staff and student goals. Natural simulations and avatar interactions are all part of the learning environment but realism, student paced learning, adaptive goals, natural language interaction, feedback and assessment are active goals for the next decade of virtual education research. Postprint

This paper investigates the use of Virtual Reality (VR) as a tool for cultural heritage learning, using St Andrews Cathedral as the subject matter. As part of a module focused on local history, first year secondary school pupils in a school in the town of St Andrews took part in virtual tours of the Cathedral as it stood in the 14th Century using the Samsung Gear VR, Google Cardboard, Oculus Rift, computer screen and Xbox controller, and answered questions aimed to elicit their experiences with the various systems. The system design and implementation is presented and the findings, observations and lessons learnt from the study are discussed. Postprint

Multi-User Virtual Worlds (MUVW) such as Open Wonderland and OpenSim have proved to be fruitful platforms for innovative educational practice, supporting exploratory learning and generating true engagement. However, when compared with the way educational activities have flourished through the use of the constantly evolving WWW, MUVW learning environments remain a relatively obscure niche. Since the advent and promise of Second Life more than twelve years ago there has been no critical mass reached and no movement towards standardisation. Concomitantly, the 3D Web has emerged as a recognisable if loosely defined concept. With the advent of technologies such as WebGL and a plethora of plug-in 3D viewers for web browsers, the question arises: will MUVWs converge with the 3D Web? If so, can existing educational content be migrated to the 3D Web for mass dissemination? The paper contributes a survey of 3D Web and MUVW terms, concepts, technologies and projects, illustrating their similarities, their value for education and discusses the likelihood of convergence. The survey is complemented by a cultural heritage case study of Unity 3D support for the deployment of virtual worlds in web browsers using two different approaches. Postprint