Witold Abramowicz (ed.), Business Information Systems, Proceedings of BIS 2002, Poznan, Poland Virtual and Augmented Reality Applied to Educational and Cultural Heritage Domains N. Mourkoussis, F. Liarokapis, J. Darcy, M. Pettersson, P. Petridis, P. F. Lister, M. White The Centre for VLSI and Computer Graphics School of Engineering and Information Technology The University of Sussex BN1 9QT, United Kingdom {n.mourkoussis, f.liarokapis, j.darcy, m.pettersson, p.petridis, p.f.lister, m.white}@sussex.ac.uk Abstract This paper discusses four research projects currently running in the Centre for VLSI and Computer Graphics. These projects exploit a variety of state-of-the-art technologies, such as photogrammetry, 3D modeling, augmented and virtual reality, and multimedia applied to the educational and cultural heritage domains, while ensuring interoperability through the use of XML. Furthermore, our user-driven prototype approach facilitates the development of valid and exploitable virtual and augmented reality systems through the use of user trials and assessment and evaluation, thus closing the quality assurance loop. 1. Introduction The Centre for VLSI and Computer Graphics embraces a number of research areas, including but not limited to multimedia, augmented and virtual reality, the generation of virtual environments applied to virtual prototyping, cultural heritage visualisation systems and teaching and learning environments. Of particular interest are the cultural heritage and educational sectors, because although computer graphics in general and—more specifically—virtual reality have been successfully applied to a great many areas, there still seems to be a lack of innovation within these particular fields. In this paper we will discuss four interrelated projects: Lambert Watercolours Visualisation (LWV); Virtual Interactive Teaching Environment (VITE); Augmented Reality in Cultural Heritage (ARICH); and Augmented Representation of Cultural Objects (ARCO); all of which address the aforementioned shortcoming. These four projects are related in several ways, for example, some share the same base technologies, such as XML [W3C 2000] and database technologies; some target similar application fields, e.g., learning environments; while some require similar visualisation techniques. Figure 1 illustrates the relationships between the various application domains and the technologies used. XML/Databases Technologies Photogrammetry Manual 3D Modelling AR Hardware/ Software LWV Cultural Heritage Education VITE Education ARICH Cultural Heritage ARCO Cultural Heritage Application Domains Visualisation Web-based Rendering Photo-realistic Rendering Figure 1. Technologies, application domains and visualisation functionality provided by the four projects outlined in this paper A key socio-economic research area of the work is the identification and subsequent involvement of real users, e.g., museum pilot sites as in the ARCO project (see section 5), who provide valuable feedback, which we gather through the development of prototype systems. These prototype systems are then assessed and evaluated at museum user trials. Hence, we ensure that final systems