ORIGINAL ARTICLE George Lepouras Æ Costas Vassilakis Virtual museums for all: employing game technology for edutainment Received: 12 December 2003 / Accepted: 21 October 2004 / Published online: 15 December 2004 Ó Springer-Verlag London Limited 2004 Abstract Museums have started to realise the potential of new technologies for the development of edutainment content and services for their visitors. Virtual reality technologies promise to offer a vivid, enjoyable experi- ence to the museums guests, but the cost in time, effort and resources can prove to be overwhelming. In this paper, we propose the use of 3D game technologies for the purpose of developing affordable, easy to use and pleasing virtual environments. To this end, we present a case study based on an already developed version of a virtual museum and a newly implemented version that uses game technologies. The informal assessment indi- cates that game technologies can offer a prominent and viable solution to the need for affordable desktop virtual reality systems. Keywords Virtual museums Æ Desktop VR Æ 3D game technologies 1 Introduction Museums host exhibitions in order to convey their message to their visitors. In the museums’ context, this is achieved by combining exhibits and information in a carefully designed order and presentation style. New technologies such as multimedia, 3D graphics and vir- tual reality can be used to enhance the presentation, offering a more vivid and enjoyable experience. A number of museums make use of images, sounds and video together, aiming to complement existing presen- tations and to create a memorable exhibition. In addi- tion to this, during the past few years, a shift has taken place in the museums’ identity, from simple holders of cultural objects to educational and at the same time entertaining institutions. Hands-on exhibitions allow their visitors, usually children, to interact with exhibits and to learn while they play with them (Caulton 2002). However, this type of exhibitions need careful plan- ning in order to achieve their full potential, and have to change in rather frequent time intervals to keep the visitors’ interest. Furthermore, as with any other type of exhibition, they set a key prerequisite: visitors’ physical presence. Although some museums have created inter- active media that the visitors can acquire and use at their homes, the overall experience cannot be compared to the one gained at the museum. To this end, virtual reality techniques could provide a plausible solution, but a variety of reasons hinder this approach. In the rest of the paper, we will describe some of these reasons supporting the rationale for more ‘‘affordable’’ (in terms of both development and hardware) virtual reality implementations, discuss possible solutions to this problem and give useful insight into the develop- ment of virtual museums with game technologies and conclude with an informal assessment of this approach. 2 The need for affordable virtual reality Virtual reality technology can help museums overcome a number of limitations they face (Lepouras et al. 2001). Virtual reality can help display exhibits that the museum cannot present, either due to lack of space or due to their fragility and their need for special handling. It can also help in cases when there is a need for visualising and simulating environments, constructions or objects that no longer exist, be partially preserved or cannot be easily visited (Sideris and Roussou 2002). The previously mentioned advantages can be coupled with the potential of virtual reality for more vivid and realistic experiences in comparison to simple multimedia G. Lepouras Æ C. Vassilakis (&) Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Peloponnese, 21100 Tripolis, Greece E-mail: glepoura@uop.gr Tel.: +30-2710-372201 Fax: +30-2710-372163 E-mail: costas@uop.gr Tel.: +30-2710-372203 Fax: +30-2710-372263 Virtual Reality (2005) 8: 96–106 DOI 10.1007/s10055-004-0141-1