A Methodology for design and implementation of VR applications in the Cultural Heritage Field

Abstract

Modern society now accepts as an integral part of their daily lives the Internet connection and the use of various technological devices, from the computer at work, through the phone in our pocket, to the so-called smart devices in our smart home. Virtual reality (VR) technologies have developed rapidly in recent years and are increasingly adopted in many areas. Such areas are the automotive industry (design and simulations), healthcare (training, virtual operations), real estate (interior design and furnishing) and architecture, education and interactive games. Areas that allow interdisciplinary work between VR specialists and teams working in the field of cultural and historical heritage (CH) are tourism in general and the provision of a different way of human interaction with CH sites. The resilience of a VR system depends primarily on the approach to its creation, which should provide ways to manage the addition of new data (and new types of data) and adaptation to new requirements (output) using the latest technologies. What is important is not the implemented technologies, but the management of the integration of these evolutions into a modular ‘system’. Thus, we propose a methodology for their creation in order to clarify the steps that the collaborative specialist should follow, the risks that may appear and some suggestions how to minimize their impact.

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