Recent trends in the Digital Humanities – conceived as new modalities of collaborative, transdisciplinary and computational research and presentation – also strongly influence research approaches and presentation practices in museums. Indeed, ongoing projects in museums have considerably expanded digital access to data and information, documentation and visualization of ancient ruins and objects. In addition, 3D modelling and eXtended Reality opened up new avenues of interacting with a wider public through digital reconstructions that allow both objects and sites to be presented through visual narratives based on multidisciplinary scholarly research. The article illustrates the use of 3D digital reconstruction and virtual reality to re-contextualise standing statues of Sekhmet in the Temple of Ptah at Karnak, where they were found in 1818. Today, they are on display at Museo Egizio, Turin. The theoretical framework of the research and the operational workflow – based on the study of the available archaeological, textual, and pictorial data – is presented here.
Scalable AR for Bim: An Application to Telecommunication Network Sites
A growing number of research works, experiments and applications is investigating the potential at the intersection of augmented reality (AR) and the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. Project management, project communication, collaborative design, maintenance and construction progress documentation, construction site safety, and training are some of the cases that can benefit from blending real and virtual views through mobile devices. In recent years, research also highlighted how mixed reality and building information modeling (BIM) could cooperate to provide effective communication between multiple agents and closer interaction between digital information and the building site. Nevertheless, consolidated applications in these fields are still limited, especially when compared to other areas of AR adoption. This paper presents the development of an AR-based mobile app for exploring telecommunications tower sites and interacting with a related BIM database. The project aims to provide easy-to-use tools to maintain both the physical assets and an up-to-date model. We discuss critical issues in developing a scalable and interoperable application, supporting the feasibility study of similar solutions in the AEC sector.
Reconstructive 3D Modelling and Interactive Visualization for Accessibility of Piffetti’s Library in the Villa della Regina Museum (Turin)
This research is realised in the framework of a project recently funded as part of the PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan) in the Accessibility sector. The working team has been established in the framework of the scientific agreement between the Museum of Villa della Regina in Turin, the Department of Architecture and Design at Politecnico di Torino, and the Department of History, Drawing and Restoration of Architecture at Sapienza Università di Roma, and includes knowledge from art history, digital surveying, 3D modelling, and digital solutions for cultural heritage. The research involves the reconstructive 3D modelling of Piffetti’s Library, once placed in the cabinet toward midnight and west inside the Villa della Regina and today in the Palazzo del Quirinale, and its interactive visualisation through augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) aimed at accessibility.
From semantic-aware digital models to Augmented Reality applications for Architectural Heritage conservation and restoration
The paper presents the integration of Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality tools for the built Heritage management and control, both remote and on-site, and real time interaction, starting from a preliminary set of experimentation carried out for knowledge and tourism purposes.
Within the framework of these experimentations, specific data inventories are related to the IFC model, and all these data are collected on a cloud-based platform, allowing the “dialogue” among platform and applications. Therefore, BIM integration is the first step of the procedure, considering a workflow where data capturing, digital documentation, and data modeling and aggregation are the entry level to manage applications able to give an added value in gaining the greatest technical benefit from digitization. Mapping the main features and the state of conservation is the second step, including geometric features, historical knowledge, documents and pictures related to materials, diagnostic analysis, etc.
Starting from AR applications developed on several case studies, including historical buildings, museums and a church, aimed at an immersive on-site navigation thanks to a set of additional information related to the digital model, experimentations oriented to technical uses are presented.
An extension of applications for the analysis and interpretation of architectural heritage and technical uses can be an effective support in restoration, conservation and maintenance of historic buildings, by enhancing the real world through virtual objects and creating a new mixed reality environment for technical users.