Search Results (15)

The archaeological complex of the Benzú rock shelter and cave, located in Ceuta (Spain), represents a heritage site of significant scientific and historical value that is currently at risk due to natural processes and, in particular, the activity of a nearby quarry. This site has been occupied from the Palaeolithic to the Bronze Age and consequently has been the subject of systematic research since 2002, focusing on its stratigraphic sequence, lithic technology, exploitation of marine resources, and the connection between both shores of the Strait of Gibraltar. With the aim of preserving this endangered heritage, a methodology based on advanced digital technologies such as photogrammetry, 3D laser scanning, and GNSS georeferencing has been implemented. These tools have enabled the creation of high-precision, three-dimensional models of the rock shelter and the cave, which are useful for both documentation and monitoring of their structural condition. In addition, fracture networks have been identified, revealing a high degree of geotechnical vulnerability, exacerbated by blasting activities at the nearby quarry. The project has produced a digital twin of the site in an open access format, serving not only for preventive conservation but also for its enhancement through virtual tours, augmented reality, and accessible outreach activities. This digitalization has been essential to facilitate the access to heritage, particularly in areas that are physically difficult to access. Finally, the integration of these digital resources into institutional policies for the sustainable management of heritage is proposed, highlighting the importance of interdisciplinary approaches that combine archaeology, geotechnology, and scientific communication. The experience at Benzú is presented as a replicable model for the protection, interpretation, and dissemination of heritage sites located in fragile and threatened environments. Full article

During the COVID-19 epidemic, countries enacted autonomous measures to suspend long-distance travel. As a result, people used online platforms to share perspectives and disseminate their knowledge and skills. Internet learning content thus emerged as a primary solution. This study was conducted to assess the reactions of users to virtual tours. Participants were introduced to the 360-degree panoramic photography system of cultural monuments of the Taipei City Government and participated in an online cultural tour. A closed-ended questionnaire was distributed for their response. After compiling data from 31 participants, we analyzed the link between users’ demographic characteristics and their satisfaction levels with the online panoramic tour system. We discovered higher satisfaction rates of people with incomes exceeding that of the average participant. 83% of participants stated a willingness to explore scenic attractions virtually instead of physically traveling when unable to do so. The results of this study contribute to understanding the context of users’ post-visit satisfaction. The information gathered can be used to improve cultural heritage websites in terms of design, navigation, and cultural education, enabling virtual access to cultural sites and enriching users’ knowledge from home. Full article

Virtual Reality (VR) technology has revolutionized the preservation and interpretation of heritage sites. This study focuses on developing an immersive 360-degree virtual tour (VT) for the USS Drum Submarine Museum in Mobile, Alabama, USA, incorporating oral histories to enhance the accessibility and visitor experiences. The project addresses the need for innovative methods to present maritime history effectively. Using Matterport technology, detailed 3D imagery of the USS Drum was captured and processed, integrating multimedia elements and oral histories from a veteran USS Drum crew member to provide a richer historical narrative. A user experience study gathered feedback from virtual visitors, who offered quantitative and qualitative responses. The research findings indicate that the VT significantly enhances visitor engagement and historical understanding, with high satisfaction rates for visual quality and oral histories, though some users experienced technical challenges and difficulties. This study demonstrates the potential of combining immersive VTs with oral histories to create engaging educational experiences, preserving the USS Drum’s legacy and making it accessible to a broader audience, including those unable to visit in person. Furthermore, this project sets a precedent for museums to leverage digital tools in preserving and promoting maritime heritage and oral histories. Full article

Virtual tours with 360 photos present a quick, easy and accessible way to create immersive experiences. The visualization on diverse devices provides a user experience that can be different. A virtual tour with 360 photos of the Chapel of Dolores (Tenerife) has been created. Access is limited to specific days, so the creation of a virtual tour allows you to visit it at any time; in addition, a pilot test has been carried out with students of the degree of restoration and conservation of cultural heritage in order to measure the user experience of the virtual tour, depending on the device used. The participants took a virtual tour of the Dolores Chapel, first with a cell phone and then with the virtual reality headset, and then completed a user experience questionnaire. The results obtained comparing both visualization technologies are detailed, highlighting the fact that when using the virtual reality headset no better results are obtained on the immersion subscale; in addition, the visualization on a smartphone is more comfortable and obtains better results for consequences such as dizziness and vertigo. Therefore, it may be an interesting strategy to have simple versions that work quickly on cell phones. Full article

The aim of this paper is to assess the accessibility of flagship cultural attractions—that is, museums located in Krakow, a city with a rich historical heritage included in the UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage List and distinguished by being a recipient of the Access City Award—for people with disabilities. This research shows the degree to which these museums have been adapted to receive visitors with disabilities. Assessments were also conducted with regard to access to the museums’ websites and the possibility for virtual tours of their collections. Out of a total of 50 museums, 31 were selected for this study, both leading museums in terms of attendance, such as Wawel Royal Castle, the National Museum, the Museum of Krakow, and the Wieliczka Salt Mine, and smaller ones such as the Aviation Museum. The research results indicate that Krakow museums are well-prepared for receiving people with physical disabilities and seniors but are less well adapted to receiving visually impaired and blind people and hearing-impaired and deaf people. Analysis of the museums’ websites showed that they are well-prepared in terms of compatibility and comprehensibility but that they received worse assessment scores with regard to their perceivability and functionality. Visitors to the museums are principally adults, adolescents, and seniors. People with disabilities make up 10% of all visitors. Full article

This research project investigates the potential of 360-panorama tours to improve the situated and contextual interpretation, virtual visitation, and spatial understanding of recorded or simulated built heritage sites. Our chosen case study was the Subiaco Hotel, a significant heritage building designed by Summerhayes Architecture, which we documented using 360-degree photographs and linked with other media to create an interactive 360-panorama tour. Today, 360-degree panorama tours such as Google Street View enable the virtual exploration of heritage sites and historic buildings. They demonstrate limited interaction and immersion across a range of platforms and devices, without the requirement of expensive virtual reality headsets, but typically do not integrate other media to leverage spatially richer ways to communicate the historical developments of architectural interiors and exteriors. The primary goals of this study were to establish a comprehensive step-by-step workflow for creating an interactive tour of a significant heritage site, demonstrate how other media such as text, videos, and 3D models can be linked, gather feedback from cultural heritage professionals, and offer future research directions and development guidelines. Apart from detailing an optimized workflow for developing interactive 360-degree virtual tours for heritage buildings, we also offer guidelines for optimal panoramic tour creation and implementation. Full article

Over the past decades, 360-degree virtual tours have been used to provide the public access to accurate representations of cultural heritage sites and museums. The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to a rise in the popularity of virtual tours as a means of engaging with locations remotely and has raised an interesting question: How could we use such experiences to bring the public closer to locations that are otherwise unreachable in real life or not considered to be tourist destinations? In this study, we examine the effectiveness of promoting engagement with a city through the virtual presentation of unknown and possibly also inaccessible points of interest through a 360-degree panoramic virtual tour. The evaluation of the experience with 31 users through an online questionnaire confirms its potential to spark curiosity, promote engagement, foster reflection, and motivate users to explore the location and its attractions at their leisure, thus enabling them to experience it from their personal point of view. The outcomes highlight the need for further research to explore this potential and identify best practices for virtual experience design. Full article

Macao is a tourist city. It is home to the Ruins of Saint Paul’s, a unique 100-year-old landmark, which is still standing with manual maintenance, even after three fires and reconstruction events. Therefore, the continuous preservation of its culture, heritage education, and construction are important issues for Macao. With the development of digital technology in recent years, users can quickly search historical sites and save two-dimensional and three-dimensional images and videos through smartphones. These methods also enhance the communication power of culture. Virtual browsing on a smartphone requires computing power and storage space; yet, virtual reality devices are not widely used. Therefore, augmented reality and virtual reality are rarely used simultaneously for three-dimensional interactive guided tours and operation experiences on the same theme. However, by quickly creating virtual reality scenarios and preserving historical sites on mobile devices, 4DAGE’s 4DKanKan technology can provide augmented reality and metaverse virtual reality experiences. 4DKanKan can also integrate mobile guides and navigation software to connect mobile devices and assist in cultural inheritance and conduct sustainable education. This research linked this technology to the web by incorporating augmented reality and virtual reality technology to make designs and discussed the influences among service design, behavioral intentions, and learning effects. We collated and analyzed relevant data and text materials through systematic testing, observation, operation processes, and semi-structured interviews. The PLS multigroup structural model was used to explore and analyze the degree of influence and explanatory power of system quality, information quality, behavioral intention, and learning effects among themselves. The results of this study show that most users accepted the proposed innovative mode of operation and found it to be interesting and fun. Augmented reality is not limited by space or time; however, virtual reality devices taking too long to operate, switching too frequently, and having too many functional interfaces can cause operational problems. This study identified and modified the influencing factors and problems of the proposed system, with the aim of continuing to expand the applications of 4DKanKan to other cultural attractions or museums in the future. In addition, the research results can provide a reference for the sustainable development of related cultural sites. Full article

The aim of this research was to address the issues in virtual-reality technologies and gamification within the context of immersive technologies. The author drew together, in a hybrid methodology, the principles of virtual touring and online training, as these need to be understood by destination and tourism professionals. The emphasis was on the utility of innovative multimedia and multimodal technological tools for modern content creation, which led to an online training process for travel agents, the role of gamification and how a virtual platform could be developed to promote a tourism destination during the COVID-19 pandemic. The author based the research on a case study of an immersive platform of a Greek destination and on the degree of the user response to the virtual technology and content. The study also included a comparison between two platforms: one using conventional content and one using multimedia content. The author methodologically used VAR models to describe the cogeneration process of multiple variables over time to investigate the relationships between these variables. The results led to a preference for immersive platforms, which can be a guide for corresponding platforms that are concerned with the promotion of destinations. Full article

Chemical Engineering is a complex discipline that is mainly applied to the industrial context, which makes it difficult to approach real equipment and systems in the classroom to students. Nevertheless, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are particularly useful to encourage active and autonomous learning, normally associated with deeper levels of engagement and understanding of the subjects taught. In this way, several studies have demonstrated that immersion has the potential to increase learning experiences and improve creativity and engagement, Virtual Reality (VR) being a remarkable example. In this context, we created and shared with students two immersive resources based on VR: (a) a laboratory 360° video tour, which was used to disseminate the Chemical Engineering Degree in an Open Door Days organized for high school students; and (b) an experiential learning tool integrated with Moodle, which was available previously to face-to-face practical lessons of the subject Separation Operations. In both cases, the feedback from the participant students was positive. High school students increased their interest in Chemical Engineering Degree after viewing the 360° video, meanwhile undergraduate students found the immersive tool useful in the subsequent performance of real practical activities. From the perspective of professors, creation of these resources required purchase of equipment, time and effort, but they were highly valued as a tool for disseminating and supporting teaching, being an initial starting point for the creation of more enhanced VR-based materials. Full article

Virtual reality (VR) is among the main technologies revolutionizing numerous sectors, including tourism. In the latter context, virtual tours (VTs) are finding increasing application. Providing an immersive and realistic human–machine interaction, VR tours can bring visitors to virtually experience destination areas. The proposed research presents a theoretical and empirical investigation of the role played by some technical VR features (i.e., presence, immersion, ease-of-use) on VR visitors’ enjoyment, satisfaction, and, accordingly, on the physical visit intention of the production site and neighboring areas. After having experienced a 360-degree VR tour of a food production site, created specifically for this study, 140 visitors were surveyed online. Results—emerging from a PLS structural equation model—show that immersion and presence both directly impact the enjoyment and indirectly the user’s VR tour satisfaction and visit intention. Further, if the VR tour is perceived as easy to use, it influences visitors’ satisfaction and physical visit intention. This study contributes to the novel VR literature, applied in the tourism sector, evidencing how immersive and enjoyable scenarios, experienced via widespread devices such as smartphones, may impact tourists’ choices. In food tourism, VR technologies can be fundamental in attracting new visitors to the production sites and neighboring areas. Full article

360° models are a form of virtual reality (VR) that allow the viewer to view and explore a photorealistic object from multiple locations within the model. Hence, 360° models are an option to perform virtual field trips (VFT) independent of time and location. Thanks to recent technical progress, 360° models are creatable with little effort. Due to their characteristics of visualization and explorability, 360° models appear as excellent learning tools, especially when additional didactic features, such as annotations, are used. The subject of this explorative field study is a 360° model of a waterworks that has been annotated for learning purposes. Data are collected from a total of 55 learners in four cohorts from study programs in environmental engineering and urban studies using a questionnaire that included standardized measurement instruments on motivation, emotion, and usability. Furthermore, the eight learners of cohort 1 are surveyed using semi-structured interviews on learning, operation and features of the 360° model. Overall, a very positive view on learning suitability of 360° models in VFTs is revealed. In addition, further potential for development of the 360° model could be identified. The results indicate that VTFs based on 360° models might be valuable learning tools, because of their applicability without great effort on the part of either the lecturers or the students. VFTs based on 360° models might serve as a supplement to conventional learning activities or in self-directed learning activities. Full article

The collection of personal data is exponentially growing and, as a result, individual privacy is endangered accordingly. With the aim to lessen privacy risks whilst maintaining high degrees of data utility, a variety of techniques have been proposed, being microaggregation a very popular one. Microaggregation is a family of perturbation methods, in which its principle is to aggregate personal data records (i.e., microdata) in groups so as to preserve privacy through k-anonymity. The multivariate microaggregation problem is known to be NP-Hard; however, its univariate version could be optimally solved in polynomial time using the Hansen-Mukherjee (HM) algorithm. In this article, we propose a heuristic solution to the multivariate microaggregation problem inspired by the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) and the optimal univariate microaggregation solution. Given a multivariate dataset, first, we apply a TSP-tour construction heuristic to generate a Hamiltonian path through all dataset records. Next, we use the order provided by this Hamiltonian path (i.e., a given permutation of the records) as input to the Hansen-Mukherjee algorithm, virtually transforming it into a multivariate microaggregation solver we call Multivariate Hansen-Mukherjee (MHM). Our intuition is that good solutions to the TSP would yield Hamiltonian paths allowing the Hansen-Mukherjee algorithm to find good solutions to the multivariate microaggregation problem. We have tested our method with well-known benchmark datasets. Moreover, with the aim to show the usefulness of our approach to protecting location privacy, we have tested our solution with real-life trajectories datasets, too. We have compared the results of our algorithm with those of the best performing solutions, and we show that our proposal reduces the information loss resulting from the microaggregation. Overall, results suggest that transforming the multivariate microaggregation problem into its univariate counterpart by ordering microdata records with a proper Hamiltonian path and applying an optimal univariate solution leads to a reduction of the perturbation error whilst keeping the same privacy guarantees. Full article

This paper reports a comparison of results obtained by using different e-learning strategies for teaching a biogas topic in two courses of the chemical engineering degree at the University of Granada. Particularly, four different asynchronous e-learning activities were carefully chosen: (1) noninteractive videos and audio files; (2) reading papers and discussion; (3) virtual tour of recommended websites of entities/associations/organizations working in the biogas sector; (4) PowerPoint slides and class notes. Students evaluated their satisfaction level (assessment) and teachers gave scores for evaluation exams (scores). We discuss the results from a quantitative point of view to suggest recommendations for improving e-learning implementations in education for sustainable energy. For dependent variables, reached scores and satisfaction assessment, we find the differences between means for students in two different academic years are no significant. In addition, there are no significant differences between means depending on the type of course. Significant differences appear for scores and satisfaction assessment between different activities. Finally, we deeply analyze the relationship between score and satisfaction assessment. The results show a positive correlation between assessment of e-learning activities and the score level reached by students. Full article

Traditional booths where sensory evaluation usually takes place are highly controlled and therefore have limited ecological validity. Since virtual reality (VR) is substantially interactive and engaging, it has the potential to be applied in sensory science. In this preliminary study, three chocolate types (milk, white, and dark) were evaluated under three contextual settings, including sensory booths (control) and two VR environments (360-degree videos using VR headsets: (i) a pleasant sightseeing tour, and (ii) a live music concert). Untrained participants (n = 67) were asked to rate their liking and the intensity of different chocolate attributes based on the 9-point hedonic scale and just-about-right-scale (JAR). Emotions were evaluated using the check-all-that-apply (CATA) method. Results showed that there were no significant effects of context type on the tasting experience; however, there were significant effects of chocolate type. Milk and white chocolates were preferred over dark chocolate irrespective of the context type. Additionally, more positive emotions were elicited for the dark chocolate in the “virtual live concert” environment. Dark chocolate under the other two environments was associated with negative emotional terms, such as “bored” and “worried.” In terms of more reliable and ecologically valid sensory responses, further research is needed to match suitable VR environments to different chocolate types. Full article