Author: Efstratios Geronikolakis

Thailand and Japan are celebrating the 130th anniversary of official diplomatic relations with a Virtual Reality Street Museum, located at the Japanese Village in Ayutthaya province. Created as an integral part of the permanent exhibition and multimedia of “Yamada Nagamasa (Okya Senabhimuk) and Thaothongkeepma” in the exhibition hall next to the Chao Phraya River, the Virtual Reality Street Museum features an innovative experiential showcase and is complemented by historic information about the former capital of Ayutthaya, the roles of the Japanese Village, and international fabric of society at the height of the Ayutthaya period. The newly-opened Virtual Reality Street Museum provides visitors with an immersive VR Theatre equipped with the latest VR Scope Technology, offering a spectacular 360-degree view of historic Ayutthaya, which was considered one of the most important trading posts (or ports) connecting the East and the West by facilitating the exchange of trade, culture, politics and diplomacy. With Ayutthaya and the Japanese Village at the heart of the exhibition showcase, the advanced technology portrays an engaging story through 96 million pixel resolution computer graphics, which depicts the naval trade journey of Yamada Nagamasa that established the relationship with the 17th century Siamese Kingdom, and set the foundations for the flourishing relationship today. Through the Street Museum’s technology, visitors can scan a QR code with their handheld devices; such as, smartphones and tablets to enjoy the vast...

A number of museums and galleries have begun to experiment with the possibilities offered by virtual reality (VR) and its related technologies, including extremely prestigious institutions such as the British Museum. The latest to join the trend is the National Museum of Finland, who are using VR to turn back to clock. With the opening of the new VR exhibit, visitors to the museum will be able to step back in time to the year 1863 by donning a VR headset and walking inside R. W. Ekman’s painting ‘The Opening of the Diet 1863 by Alexander II’. The exhibit lets visitors get a unique view of the Diet of Finland, the legislative body that existed from 1809 to 1906. They will be able to speak with the emperor and representatives of the different social classes, or visit the Hall of Mirrors in what was formerly the Imperial Palace, now known as the Presidential Palace. The VR experience forms part of a wider exhibition formed around 1860s Finland as an autonomous Grand Duchy of Russia. The aim of the exhibition is to blend historical artefacts with a digital world to give visitors the feeling of walking into history. The VR experience was built by Zoan Oy, who are the largest VR studio in Finland. The company have made it their mission to make Finland into the most virtual society in the...

This Virtual Reality experience is about a coalmine ride and it is the ambitious work of two students, Georgina Hill and Barry Lewis from Bath College, in a collaboration with Radstock Museum. Georgina and Barry have developed and implemented the ride for the final project of their course, gaining them both a Foundation Degree in Applied Computing. The final project required the students to draw on all the computing skills they had acquired during the course, as well as to demonstrate skills in areas such as project management and collaborating with a third party and client. In this Virtual Reality experience, the viewers take a seat for a fully three-dimensional trip. Specifically, they pop on the lightweight headset (which fits comfortably over glasses) and they will find themselves in the cage (the lift), which took the miners down underground, where their descent begins. The viewers are in the role of a miner, clunking and bumping down the mineshaft in the cage – dropping at a rate of 60 feet per second – taking them deep underground. Once down at the pit bottom, they will find themselves travelling in a coal truck along rails on the underground roadway. By turning their head to look all around them, they can see the pit pony stables and miners eating their lunches. The viewers pass by miners cutting away at the coalface with...