Realistic Virtual Humans for Cultural Heritage Applications

Abstract

Virtual Humans are becoming a commodity in computing technology and lately have been utilized in the context of interactive presentations in Virtual Cultural Heritage environments and exhibitions. To this end, this research work underlines the importance of aligning and fine-tuning Virtual Humans’ appearance to their roles and highlights the importance of affective components. Building realistic Virtual Humans was traditionally a great challenge requiring a professional motion capturing studio and heavy resources in 3D animation and design. In this paper, a workflow for their implementation is presented, based on current technological trends in wearable mocap systems and advancements in software technology for their implementation, animation, and visualization. The workflow starts from motion recording and segmentation to avatar implementation, retargeting, animation, lip synchronization, face morphing, and integration to a virtual or physical environment. The testing of the workflow occurs in a use case for the Mastic Museum of Chios and the implementation is validated both in a 3D virtual environment accessed through Virtual Reality and on-site at the museum through an Augmented Reality application. The findings, support the initial hypothesis through a formative evaluation, and lessons learned are transformed into a set of guidelines to support the replication of this work.

Interaction in eXtended Reality Applications for Cultural Heritage

“…They can be virtual humans or real-life actors. How to create quality virtual humans and their contribution to immersion are explained in [21]. On the other hand, real actors give a different level of immersion and add life to VR narration [22].…”

Mixed-Reality Demonstration and Training of Glassblowing

“…The ARCO system [18,19] provides customized tools for Virtual Museum (VM) environments, ranging from the digitization of museum collections to the tangible visualization of both museum galleries and artworks. In [20], Virtual Humans (VHs) are used in an AR setting to present narratives on the everyday life of workers in a mastic factory narrated by the workers themselves appearing virtually within the exhibition.…”

Multimodal Narratives for the Presentation of Silk Heritage in the Museum

“…Research has shown that VHs can affect the virtual experience and stimulate attention and involvement [56][57][58]. Furthermore, their contribution to achieving the suspension of disbelief has been recognized [59]. Narratives, when successfully used for guiding the user through a Virtual Museum, motivate visitors to stay longer and see more [60].…”

“…VHs can bring these experiences to a wider audience, including people with disabilities [61], as well as provide a welcome invitation for discovery [62,63]. As such, several approaches have been presented for the implementation of realistic VHs, including segmentation of the motion files acquired through the recording of craft practitioners and narrators (e.g., [59,61,62]).…”