AR/VR at Curtin University

UNESCO Chair of Cultural Heritage and Visualisation

We explore how augmented and mixed and virtual reality can reveal new dimensions of history for heritage, tourism and educational purposes

The market:

2018 to be a landmark year for VR, AR
Worldwide Spending on Augmented and Virtual Reality Forecast to Reach $17.8 Billion in 2018, According to IDC ($9.1 billion in 2017)
Augmented reality: Why 2018 might be the year AR tech goes mainstream
AR/VR Investment more than $US3 billion in 2017, total spending "nearly $US215 billion in 2021, some $US30 billion of which will be due to sales of AR headsets alone" (alternatively 209.2 billion in 2022)

New DH skills?

Unreal game engine + mining sim trainer + Cylindrical Screen=?

Renaissance landscape historian

+ TILTVR=?

3D to Mixed Reality: From Regard3D to HoloLens

Workshop 23.11.2017 Curtin Library Makerspace

how can we create content that works ACROSS devices and platforms for changing devices AND audiences?

How do we preserve and communicate the past LEVERAGING the unique aspects of MR AR VR?

Who Saves the Virtual?

Becoming Archaeological p33, Ruth Tringham, UC Berkeley

“we found that at least half of his [game] examples have disappeared by now, … according to the Library of Congress, the average lifespan of a webpage is only 100 days."

3 promising trends

VR equipment is moving towards the consumer level, based on the notion of a component based system.
Smartphone both stereoscopic viewers & PCs (e.g. Samsung Gear).
Consumer technology frameworks will help improve access..

VR =< Reality?

"… the emotions you feel when you have a virtual experience are not as valuable. Computer simulations, however good, contain only what photography, laser technology and pre-existing expertise put into them… VR will never be a substitute for encounters with the real thing."

Janna Thompson, https://theconversation.com/why-virtual-reality-cannot-match-the-real-thing-92035

Don't Believe the HYPE!

UNESCO Chair Objectives

Create a network to use & advise on 3D models of World Heritage Sites & show how 3D models can be employed in teaching & research
Build capacity through community workshops, learning materials, distributing the teaching resources digitally at no cost the end user, train research students, postdocs, research fellows.
Recommend long-term archive guidelines, linking 3D models to scholarly publications, scholarly resources & infrastructures;
Disseminate the results of research activities at conferences & workshops, via online papers, applications & learning materials.
Cooperate closely with UNESCO on relevant activities.