Author: Efstratios Geronikolakis

Virtual reality draws a clear line in the sand—you’re in the real world, you put on this headset, and now you’re in a different world. But augmented reality technology allows you to straddle that line, keeping one foot in both worlds and in doing so, creating a third world that’s all its own. It’s in this third world of augmented reality that Nexus’s Invisible Museum lives. We already know that not all art is visible. But these works are less invisible than they are cloaked. They’re perfectly easy to see, if you look at them the right way, which is through a tablet device equipped with augmented reality technology. This could be helpful in the TA4 of the ViMM project, because it is a great innovation of augmented reality usage in a museum. The fact that the viewers can see the artworks through augmented reality enhances the feeling of presence, making them feel that these artworks are in front of them. Finally, the way that those artworks pop-up and appear in front of the viewer makes the exhibition more fun and interesting for them, something that belongs to the gamification field. This innovation is very interesting and could contribute a lot to Virtual Museums. More information about Invisible Museum: https://nexusstudios.com/work/invisible-museum/ Source:...

The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum created a new virtual reality application, which is called VR Hangar. VR Hangar contains three virtual reality tours that feature landmark moments in aviation history. Specifically, these three tours are the Wright Brothers’ first flight, Chuck Yeager’s record-breaking flight in the Bell X-1, and the Apollo 11 mission. This application is free and available to use on Android phones and on iPhones. This could be helpful in TA4 of the ViMM project, because this application is based on Virtual Reality. It is a free app, something that makes it possible for even more people to try it.  This application provides full immersion, which enhances the feeling of presence. This makes it very interesting and fun for the people as it makes them feel that they are really in these flights. VR Hangar: https://airandspace.si.edu/vrhangar Source:...

Thanks to a collaboration between online art platform Artsy and Pace Galleries Amsterdam design firm Studio Drift, the Concrete Storm uses the Microsoft HoloLens headsets to digitally project a catalog of virtual art via an immersive mixed reality experience. Visitors begin by entering a simple room lined with green patterns that all intertwine with one another. Scattered across the installation are small broken pillars placed seemingly at random. Once you don the HoloLens however, the true magic of the exhibit is revealed in a spectacular fashion. Using the mixed reality capabilities of the headset, virtual pillars extend from the real concrete structures spread across the installation. The digital projections are broken into pieces as if they were blown by a tank, hovering in the air as if time were stopped in its tracks. This could be useful in Thematic Area 4 of the ViMM project, because holographic augmented reality is used, in order to digitally project a museum exhibition. With the help of holographic augmented reality, the visitors can virtually extend the pillars of the room and freely walk around virtual projections in order to view the art from any angle. The storytelling, presence and gamification fields are combined in a very innovative way, as Microsoft HoloLens combines the virtual with the real world perfectly. The fact that a simple room is virtually extended to an art exhibition is something that...

Boulevard Arts, Inc., an immersive art and culture platform, collaborated with the Case Western Reserve University, on developing an application for HoloLens, that enables virtual visits to London’s Courtauld Gallery and the British Museum. People who already have a Microsoft HoloLens headset can see 18 works from The Courtauld and the British Museum, no matter where they are in the world. Specifically, viewers using the CWRU-Boulevard application with a HoloLens device can see holograms of paintings and historic objects, and other people, whether they are in the same physical space, or connected virtually. Reede, a former museum curator, said “I may be looking at something completely different than another person in the app with me, but I can say, ‘Come over here, take a look at this.’. It allows you to feel as though you are there together and learning collaboratively.”. This could be useful in Thematic Area 4 of the ViMM project, because this application is a great innovation in Virtual Museums. With the help of this specific application, the owners of a HoloLens headset will be able to visit this Virtual Museum just by running the application, no matter their location. The storytelling, presence and gamification fields are combined in a very interesting and innovative way, in order to provide the best experience to the viewers. Especially, the collaboration opportunity that this application provides, makes the learning...