The so-called digital revolution has radically changed our habits, behaviours and expectations: nonetheless, the research fields related to humanities and social sciences still often do not exploit enough the potential of the digital instruments. The new capillary connections and exchange potentials triggered by digital networks are besides already changing the way cultural resources are retrieved, analysed, elaborated and even created, but many crucial actors (consultants, scholars, professionals, up to generic users) still seem to neglect these possibilities in favour of their "traditional" approach.
Furthermore, cultural resources still show an intrinsic distinction between tangible and intangible according to the source they refer to and, although it has been commonly acknowledged that any cultural asset is always the product of both aspects, for the latter little has been made so far to allow a satisfactory usage of digital sources. Even less to integrate tangible and intangible digital resources in a common environment.
Starting from the already available digital content, this research was aimed at design a new Digital Cooperative Environment capable to respond to all the mentioned-above issues so to improve the retrieving, sharing, reuse and creation of cultural resources referring both to tangible and intangible values. The scientific methodologies, procedures and tools designed within this research will contribute to the transformation of European cultural wealth into an actual asset valuable for different stakeholders, institutions and the entire economic sector related with culture (tourism, cultural and creative industries, They could also serve as an important instrument also for those agencies, companies or public authorities dealing with the transformation/management of cultural assets in which the cultural values represent a major component.
The research will present the following major progresses:
Improvement of User/Data interaction
Context
The availability of valuable information actually represents a key factor for the activities of scholars, experts, etc. Nonetheless it is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for the creation of new knowledge.This second goal can be achieved only if the user, after gathering information and data, is in the condition of originally processing them and of reintroducing his/her results in the DCRs domain.
The first issue is highly related with metadata of document. If the user does not provide a correct set of metadata, its information simply could result invisible to other similar users or, even worse, to all users. The EC has invested great resources to mitigate this problem and by now we do have a common standard represented by the Europeana Digital Model (EDM).
Advances on the State of the Art
At the moment there is not a `standard¿ way for ensuring a smooth enrichment of the DCRs domain.
Different documents in different formats often create a sort of ¿jungle¿ that each user simply makes increasingly tangled adding not properly indexed information.
The research will intervene not directly on information standards (already set in the Europeana workflow) but instead providing innovative tools for making this information compliant with EDM standards.
Data Visualization and downstream User experience
Context
The recent developments in computer technology and human computer interaction suggest for a wider understanding of interactive systems as boundaries between e.g. game consoles vs. desktop systems, gesture based vs. mouse based interaction or 2D vs. 3D interfaces. Although already used for some time, we still think that Mixed Reality (MR) is a good label to capture the basic notion and all its various flavours as Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Tangible Interfaces (TI) as well as 2D and 3D interfaces.
The research project will combine the domain of Mixed Reality for the benefit of the end users.
Advances on the State of the Art
In order to provide an innovative data enrichment processes, the research DCE will allow users to test and experiment an interactive and immersive experience, using the information provided by the system.
Users will interact with the refined results coming from querying the DCRs domain not only using traditional methods (reading, printing, editing) but also with a number of innovative tools that will:
- Provide access to 3D experiential demos, connected to 3D stereoscopic screens;
- Augmented reality application: to be used with retrieved dataset or study cases. The user will be able, for instance, to point historical objects physically stored, or monuments and to have access to many CH system related information;
- Holograms application: to be used with retrieved dataset or study cases. The user will be able to view reconstructed objects and interact with them.
- Immersive application: to be used to visualize different features of objects (i.e. 3D models, landscape archaeology, CH reconstructions, etc.)
The research will present the following innovation potential:
- Joint enrichment tool, able to implement a remote multidisciplinary collaboration among expert target users (scholars, professionals, conservators, restorers, etc.) to empower the creation of integrated collections of digital assets.
The collaborative environment will allow user to access to an innovative editing data module, which aims, for example, at facilitating the collaborative 3D reconstruction of an incomplete data.
- Knowledge creation tool, for creating expert annotations supported and validated by the researchers network.
The user will interact in real-time by means of an interface and will have a possibility to refer to the virtual network for any additional clarification. The recreated virtual environment will give increased value to the original data and ideally, enrich the wealth of information concerning the examined object.
- Experience Collaborative Tool for real-time, concurrent cultural content visualization/integration based on augmented reality applications, mobile equipment and wearable devices.
In order to provide an innovative data enrichment processes, the C-Heritage platform will allow users to test and experiment with an interactive and immersive experience, using the information provided by the system.
All these innovation will be predominantly achieved through the innovative application and combination of technology. It does not strictly depend on the development of new technology but the smart use and combination of existing technologies.