Written by Xiaocheng Ma

As museums and heritage attractions are restricted by distancing and capacity rule during the COVID-19 pandemic, digital strategies undoubtedly gather more interest than ever before. Virtual Reality (VR) has been put to use in the cultural sector a way to deliver exciting and immersive exhibitions.

Take Italy, one of the countries with the most heritage sites in the world, as an example. Statistics show that in 2020 nearly half of museums and heritage sites in Italy plan to introduce VR technology in the future.

Among various applications of VR technology, heritage recreation is one of the most innovative uses that has brought benefits to both museums and their visitors. While virtual museums have the ability to both conserve and disseminate cultural information in an efficient and low-cost manner, some potential issues associated with the technology should also be considered. The following article first outlines the technology demonstrating the process for a specific VR project for the Milan Cathedral.

How Does the Technology Work?

Virtual Reality is a simulated experience that can transport users to another time and place. Referencing the research project conducted on the Milan Cathedral, a simplified 3-step procedure was conducted in applying VR heritage recreation.

STEP 1: 3D Modeling

The first step in heritage recreation is to develop a system for creating 3D models of complex objects. Rhinoceros, a popular 3D program that works with NURBS curves and surfaces, was used to build the model. It is possible to measure each element's volume, external surface, and mass.

STEP 2: Apply WebBIMDuomo

For the digital cultural restoration process, applying an additional program is necessary. Once each element's volume, external surface, and mass is calculated and modeled, the next step is to use a WebBIMDuomo to manage all restoration activities through a BIM (Building Information Modeling) system. BIM aids decision-making during a construction project's lifecycle. The process's improved cooperation gathers and maintains data, allowing all stakeholders' work to be organized and informed.

A heritage recreation project may involve archaeologists, art historians, museum boards, and model developers. With a BIM system, the cooperation between these stakeholders will become more efficient.

STEP 3: Building out the VR System and Experience

To display virtual information relative to the perspective location of users or the camera, immersive VR systems require tracking. The three categories of tracking methods are camera-based tracking, sensor-based tracking, and hybrid tracking. While digital cameras, vision algorithms, and markers are used in camera-based tracking, sensor-based tracking uses electromagnetic, acoustic, and inertial sensors to track the viewpoints. Hybrid tracking refers to a variety of tracking devices including GPS, eye tracking, and other similar systems.

After determining the viewpoint and perspective position of the viewer, the next step is to adapt existing data (3D models and information) in order to create an interactive VR framework. The most used equipment and software for VR system development are Unity 3D and Oculus DK2, the Head Mounted Display (HMD). The implementation of these 3 steps resulted in the Milan Cathedral VR experience.

VR cultural heritage is not limited to Italy. The two examples linked below offer additional perspectives on the future of VR, including the well-known Dunhuang Caves. The Dunhuang Caves, also known as the Mogao Caves, contain some of the most exquisite Buddha murals spanning a period of 1,000 years. The building of the Dunhuang Caves is thought to have started around the fourth century AD. Because of its age, the restoration of this cultural heritage has always been regarded as an important task. In order to prevent the further deterioration of these murals, the museum decided to use VR technology to record the current appearance of the caves before the they are further damaged over time as a result of being exposed to the elements. In the VR simulation of the caves, visitors are free to wander around and view the cave’s sculptures and murals closely, creating an impressively immersive experience.

On the VR platform, users can see the transformation of the murals over different eras. This is a particularly significant part of the exhibit, as it shows audiences how the murals have deteriorated over centuries. This technology transports audiences to another place and time by providing a possible insight of what the cave could have looked like thousands of years ago. The VR cave can be viewed on mobile devices with a cardboard VR glass and is also suitable for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive Head-Mounted Display if viewers want better quality.

Considerations when incorporating VR with Cultural Heritage

There has been multiple articles contributing to the discourse of advantages and disadvantages of the use of VR technology in the heritage recreation field. One of the benefits of using VR is to provide users with the opportunity to have an immersive, time travel-like experience. Lijun Ma and Xiaobo Lu of Tsinghua University in China exemplify that the use of VR extends the material property of cultural heritage and makes cultural communication transcend space and time. Both the VR for Dunhuang Caves and Lithodomos 3D increases the content accessibility and build a bridge between the past and the present.

Another benefit is to provide accessibility for a broader group audiences, including those with disabilities. In the research conducted for the VR for Milan Cathedral, researchers mentioned that using VR could be attractive for both the general public and scholars because the highest part of the Milan Cathedral has been closed since the beginning of the 16th century. Thus, the exploration of certain sites, such as this, could be seen by the public due to the implementation of VR. In continuation with this trend of exploring cultural sites with VR technology, Google has launched a VR heritage project, called the Open Heritage Project, with VyArk, a non-profit from Oakland, California. The team used Virtual Reality to create accurate 3D versions of 26 heritage sites in 18 nations. Many of these heritage sites are far away from urban areas, some under governmental restriction. With the Open Heritage Project, more audiences can access these cultural locations through a VR experience.

VR systems for heritage sites can have profound effects on education. The Open Heritage Project is designed with audio guides as well as educational games, giving users a way to engage and learn at the same time. Additionally, VR systems can be a flexible for archaeologists and art historians, as the restoration suggestions made and tested on the virtual platform is reversible. This allows for easy changes to be made to the 3D models as archaeological theories are improved or updated.

However, Researchers and archeologists have expressed concern of the use of VR in heritage sites. One of the biggest arguments is that much of the restoration and recreation of heritage sites is based on partial evidence. Researchers from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and Cyprus University of Technology suggested that sophisticated graphic systems used for VR reconstructions may be too realistic for the viewers, suggesting that it is easy to ignore the fact that the recreation is based on partial evidence and thus taken for granted.

Simon Young, Australian archaeologist and founder of the Lithodomos VR, mentions a miscommunication problem between different stakeholders. Young said in the interview: “Some game developer in Silicon Valley who has no idea thinks, ‘Oh, a column would look great there.’ The real danger is that, because VR is such a powerful medium, if someone visits the Colosseum, they walk away with an idea that this is what it was like.” The communication between archaeologists and technicians is critical for the accuracy of the VR reconstruction and museums should work closely with their technology team and emphasize their obligation to public education in these creations. This insures that museums can keep the integrity of cultural heritage exhibits while providing an exciting and immersive educational experience of the past with technology that looks toward the future.