Virtual Cultural Heritage: perspectives and future directions

Modern computing and virtual environment technologies can immerse users into highly realistic computer-generated environments, in which visible and invisible, hypothetical and imaginary objects can be merged into a single, coherent world. These aspects make it natural to apply them to explore areas of cultural interest: a virtual tourist can immerse into places that are inaccessible because only existent in ancient ages, or still existing but closed for repairs, or simply too distant to be reached. An entire city centre can now be reproduced in 4D, with time as the fourth dimension, representing and amplifying centuries of history in a single, virtual space.From a technical and technological perspective, things are evolving fast. Virtual Reality (VR) headsets and development platforms are now cheaper and efficient. High-end solutions such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Sony PlayStation VR, will be all available within the year. For a fully mobile VR experience, Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard, in which a smartphone is used it both as the visual and processing unit, are now available too. As a result, after decades of niche products and applications, VR solutions are entering into the mainstream, and opening new scenarios. Let us consider the case of “Splash”, a new-born community: people can capture the space around them with a 360-degree video and then share it to other users that, by using a VR helmet or even a cardboard, can immerse into these distant realities. Experiences, both real and virtual, can now be shared by letting the users to live them with their own point of view. However, the more the presence - the sensation of being there - of the user grows, the more the interactivity becomes challenging. Humans learn and perceive following an interactive process, and this is especially true for the understanding, analysis and interpretation of the cultural patrimony. The immersion into a digital, real or mixed world will require novel technologies and methods to interact with and, somewhat, “feel” such environments. How to navigate within the spatio-temporal continuum, make questions, switch between the different realities of the cultural information? These are only some of the aspects that are now opening methodological discussions and research questions