Titulo Estágio
Multi-user communication framework for guided tours in VR
Áreas de especialidade
Comunicações, Serviços e Infraestruturas
Sistemas de Informação
Local do Estágio
DEI
Enquadramento
There are various existing virtual tours that allow people to visit museums, ancient cities and architectural heritage. However, these virtual tours are often developed to be experienced by a single user and provide no means for interactive interpretation of the museum or site (like when a human interpreter guides a group of people through a heritage site while explaining and answering questions). Tour guides are able to adapt to the personal experience of individual visitors, to individual culture, to adapt the tour to overall attention, etc., in order to provide a more fulfilling and memorable experience. A study on the practice of tour guiding in the context of museums has demonstrated ". . . how the guided tour is nothing like the monologic lecture it is often seen to be. Instead, it is interactive in subtle and ongoing ways" [1]. Guided tours have also been shown to result in a more positive attitude towards the CH institution, and better the information retention in the context of school guided tours [2]. In addition, knowledge about a cultural heritage site or artefacts is not static, new discoveries and understanding are continuously being produced. Virtual guides are much harder to update because they are often developed within budget-constrained projects that do not account for periodic updates. Human tour guides are able to immediately incorporate new knowledge into their interactive storytelling.
Implementing a human-guided virtual tour requires a real-time communication infrastructure and framework that allows not only voice communication but also possibly video, and real-time control over the participants virtual environment.
Several questions arise in this setting:
- What locomotion strategies work best?
- How much control over participants' position or gaze should a guide have?
- How should the current tour location be communicated to participants in a non-intrusive way?
- What kind of user interface is the best to give guides aggregated information about where visitors are looking at in order to adapt the interpretation to their interests?
The Santa Cruz project (https://santacruz.ces.uc.pt) is currently developing a 3D digital reconstitution of the Monastery of Santa Cruz of Coimbra in 1834. The outputs of this project are particularly well-suited to human-guided virtual tours given that many of the locations do not exist anymore and will only be possible to experience virtually. This master's project will be able to use the 3D models and data resulting from the Santa Cruz project.
Objetivo
The objectives of this project are:
1. To set up and develop the server and software infrastructure required for running multi-user VR environments with shared interactions, audio and video communications.
2. To implement a virtual tour using the 3D models, point cloud surveys and VR 3D 180 pictures and movies resulting from the Santa Cruz project.
3. To evaluate the experience of participating in such a virtual tour and evaluate the technical infrastructure
Plano de Trabalhos - Semestre 1
1. Study VR architectures for multi-user environments (e.g., [3] and [4])
2. Study real-time communication protocols such as WebRTC
3. Define an architecture for the virtual tour system
4. Implement an initial proof-of-concept prototype
Plano de Trabalhos - Semestre 2
1. Setup the server infrastructure and framework
2. Implement a virtual tour with the 3D models from the Santa Cruz project
3. Evaluate the technical infrastructure
4. Evaluate the user experience (both guide and visitors) of the virtual tour
5. Write the report and a scientific paper
Condições
Trabalho a desenvolver parcialmente em colaboração com a equipa do projecto de Santa Cruz.
Observações
References and conferences
[1] Best, K. (2012). Making museum tours better: understanding what a guided tour really is and what a tour guide really does. Museum Management and Curatorship, 27(1), 35–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/09647775.2012.644695
[2] Falk, J. H., & Dierking, L. D. (1997). School Field Trips: Assessing Their Long-Term Impact. Curator: The Museum Journal, 40(3), 211–218. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2151-6952.1997.tb01304.x
[3] Park, C. H., Ko, H., & Kim, T. (2003). NAVER: Networked and augmented virtual environment architecture; Design and implementation of VR framework for Gyeongju VR Theater. In Computers and Graphics (Pergamon) (Vol. 27, pp. 223–230). Elsevier Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0097-8493(02)00279-0
[4] Du, J., Shi, Y., Zou, Z., & Zhao, D. (2018). CoVR: Cloud-Based Multiuser Virtual Reality Headset System for Project Communication of Remote Users. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 144(2), 04017109. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0001426
Orientador
Jorge C. S. Cardoso
jorgecardoso@dei.uc.pt 📩