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Home Explore Extended Reality and Metaverse - Immersive Technology in Times of Crisis

Extended Reality and Metaverse - Immersive Technology in Times of Crisis

Published by Willington Island, 2023-06-19 17:24:57

Description: This book features the latest research in the area of immersive technologies as presented at the 7th International Extended Reality (XR) Conference, held in Lisbon, Portugal in 2022.

Bridging the gap between academia and industry, it showcases the latest advances in augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), extended reality (XR) and metaverse and their applications in various sectors such as business, marketing, retail, education, healthcare, tourism, events, fashion, entertainment, and gaming.

The volume gathers selected research papers by prominent AR, VR, XR and metaverse scholars from around the world. Presenting the most significant topics and latest findings in the fields of augmented reality, virtual reality, extended reality and metaverse, it will be a valuable asset for academics and practitioners alike.

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["144 S. Vert et al. Fig. 1. Redesigned prototype of Spotlight Timisoara AR: (a) user safety warning; (b) gentle guidance; (c) freedom of choice. 4.3 Freedom of Choice The application should not enforce a certain user \ufb02ow. On the contrary, it should allow users as much freedom of navigation as possible. For example, users should be able to choose the landmarks they want to visit and how to get there (Fig. 1c). 4.4 Contextual Help to Smoothen the Experience Users don\u2019t want to leave the current task to get help if they feel lost. The application should be able to offer contextual support, and do it in a friendly and entertaining way, for example, in the form of a gami\ufb01ed avatar (Fig. 2a). 4.5 Flexibility in Interacting with the Application While AR is not a novel technology anymore, it has yet to be cataloged as mainstream. As such, the AR application needs to accommodate both experienced and inexperienced users. The \ufb01rst can perform their tasks in the application without being slowed down by a step-by-step tutorial from the gami\ufb01ed avatar (Fig. 2b). 4.6 Full Immersion Experience Users have higher than usual expectations of a novel medium such as augmented reality. Application creators should use a wide range of techniques to make the user feel com- pletely immersed in the story, like photos, audio, videos, quizzes, etc. that augment the surroundings (Fig. 2c).","Towards User Experience Guidelines 145 Fig. 2. Redesigned prototype of Spotlight Timisoara AR: (a) contextual help; (b) \ufb02exibility in interaction; (c) full immersion experience. 4.7 Feedback for the User As a rather novel medium for most users, not every step is clear in augmented reality. \u2018System status visibility\u2019, the \ufb01rst of Nielsen\u2019s usability heuristics, also applies here: users should be informed of the state of the application, for example, that the engine is working to recognize a landmark (Fig. 3a). 4.8 Animated and Interactive Experience AR is at its core an interactive experience, so this needs to be re\ufb02ected in what the application offers. Content creators should strive to make the best out of 3D models, animations, 3D interaction, etc. (Fig. 3b). 4.9 Save and Share AR experiences, especially when triggered by heritage landmarks, are usually a one-off event for users. The application should allow them to save the augmented reality view for rewatching it later and\/or for sharing it with their friends on social media platforms (for example, as a digital postcard) (Fig. 3c).","146 S. Vert et al. Fig. 3. Redesigned prototype of Spotlight Timisoara AR: (a) feedback for the user; (b) animated and interactive experience; (c) digital postcard. 5 Conclusions Using a mix of research methods, i.e., literature review, competitive analysis, semi- structured interviews, and usability evaluations, we derived a set of practical user expe- rience guidelines for designing mobile augmented reality storytelling applications with historical images in the context of urban cultural heritage. We demonstrated these guidelines by showing their implementation in an improved prototype of the Spotlight Timisoara AR application. We will use these guidelines to fully implement a second iteration of the Spotlight Timisoara AR application and perform another user evaluation, which will include, as a novelty, the use of mobile eye tracking. Because lightweight and discrete eye tracking glasses for outdoor use were not available or were very expensive until recently (Simpson et al. 2019), there are virtually no studies of this type in mobile augmented reality for the storytelling of cultural heritage in the urban context. Acknowledgements. This research was funded by the Politehnica University of Timisoara under grant number 10162\/11.06.2021. References Han, D.-I.D., Jung, T., tom Dieck, M.C.: Translating tourist requirements into mobile AR application engineering through QFD. Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact. 35(19), 1842\u20131858 (2019) Han, D.-I., tom Dieck, M.C., Jung, T.: User experience model for augmented reality applications in urban heritage tourism. J. Herit, Tour. 13(1), 46\u201361 (2018) Konstantakis, M., Caridakis, G.: Adding Culture to UX: UX research methodologies and applications in cultural heritage. J. Comput. Cult. Herit. 13(1), 4:1\u20134:17 (2020)","Towards User Experience Guidelines 147 Perra, C., Grigoriou, E., Liotta, A., Song, W., Usai, C., Giusto, D.: Augmented reality for cul- tural heritage education. In: 2019 IEEE 9th International Conference on Consumer Electronics (ICCE-Berlin), pp. 333\u2013336 (2019) Simpson, J., Freeth, M., Simpson, K.J., Thwaites, K.: Visual engagement with urban street edges: insights using mobile eye-tracking. J. Urban. Int. Res. Placemak. Urban Sustain. 12(3), 259\u2013278 (2019) Tiriteu, D., Vert, S.: Usability testing of mobile augmented applications for cultural heritage \u2013 a systematic literature review. Presented at the RoCHI-International Conference on Human- Computer, Interaction, pp. 137\u2013144 (2020). http:\/\/rochi.utcluj.ro\/articole\/8\/RoCHI2020-Tir iteu.pdf Vert, S.: Spotlight Timisoara AR - Mobile augmented reality with historical images for cultural heritage. In: Digital Culture in Education, Science and Technology, p. 186. IAFeS Publications, Vienna (2021) Vert, S., et al.: User evaluation of a multi-platform digital storytelling concept for cultural heritage. Mathematics 9(21) (2021). https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2227-7390\/9\/21\/2678 Vi, S., da Silva, T.S., Maurer, F.: User experience guidelines for designing HMD extended reality applications. In: Lamas, D., Loizides, F., Nacke, L., Petrie, H., Winckler, M., Zaphiris, P. (eds.) INTERACT 2019. LNCS, vol. 11749, pp. 319\u2013341. Springer, Cham (2019). https:\/\/doi.org\/10. 1007\/978-3-030-29390-1_18","The Impact of Augmented and Virtual Reality for Sustainable Tourism Jorge Nascimento(B) and Sandra Maria Correia Loureiro ISCTE-Instituto Universit\u00e1rio de Lisboa and Business Research Unit (BRU-IUL), Lisbon, Portugal [email protected], [email protected] Abstract. Tourism is one of the least developed industries, in terms of environ- mentally sustainable practices, while at same time faces huge economic chal- lenges, and from which communities all around the world depend on. At same time, Augmented and Virtual Reality applications are expected to grow signi\ufb01- cantly in the short-term, and impact many traditional markets. Considering that only a small portion of studies examine how the introduction of technologies can enable a more sustainable development route in the Hospitality and Tourism sec- tor, this study aims to provide an overview on the state of literature and to uncover emerging topics, which could lead to a future research agenda for this domain. A bibliometric analysis is employed on articles from both Web of Science and Scopus databases, and \ufb01ndings reveal four major thematic groups for the future, in what are still at the moment, two separate, unrelated research streams. Man- agerial perspectives are derived, and a set of new research questions is proposed as guidance for future scholars, dedicated to the outcomes of digital disruption on sustainable tourism. Keywords: Bibliometric analysis \u00b7 Sustainability \u00b7 Tourism \u00b7 Virtual reality \u00b7 Augmented reality \u00b7 Future Trends 1 Introduction Technology innovations are often game changers, which can disrupt many traditional markets - such as Hospitality and Tourism (H&T) - and change its competitive forces rapidly (de Kervenoael et al. 2020; Golja and Pauli\u0161ic\u00b4 2021). Yet, other authors describe digital transformation in H&T as a future topic instead and emphasize the lack of attention given by scholars and practioners to the present day (de Carlo et al. 2021; Lalicic and Weismayer 2021). H&T is in fact considered the largest industry in the global economy (Choi et al. 2015; Loureiro, Guerreiro, et al. 2021.a; Untaru et al. 2016), providing income for local communities all around the world, but facing huge risks aggravated by economic uncertainty, Covid-19 lockdowns (Sung et al. 2021), and the urgent need to tackle its massive environmental impacts (Filimonau et al. 2018; Kim and Park 2017). Projected to grow over 30 times until 2025 (Alsop 2022), Augmented (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technologies could foster the sector\u2019s economic growth (Loureiro \u00a9 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 T. Jung et al. (Eds.): XR 2022, SPBE, pp. 148\u2013156, 2023. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/978-3-031-25390-4_14","The impact of Augmented and Virtual Reality for Sustainable Tourism 149 2020.a), generate new market opportunities (Loureiro 2021) and create more memorable, environmentally sustainable touristic experiences (Bec et al. 2019). Considering such opportunities, the present study aims to examine the under-studied role of AR and VR technologies on the challenges of sustainable tourism and explore what appear to be (so far) mostly unrelated themes in academic literature (Loureiro and Nascimento 2021). A bibliometric study and content analysis are conducted to: (i) iden- tify the most pertinent contributions; (ii) examine the publication network and uncover emerging topics; (iii) elaborate on future research questions, for further advancing knowl- edge about the in\ufb02uence of AR\/VR technologies in the context of speci\ufb01c industries. This investigation offers a new approach, by combining bibliometric analysis\u2019 tech- niques with a review of major trends related to the opportunities and outcomes of AR and VR technologies for the H&T industry, which provides relevant managerial impli- cations, and a set of actionable research questions and work streams, aimed to inspire future scholars, to dedicate further attention to the connection between technology and the grand challenges of sustainable tourism. 2 Theoretical Background Sustainable tourism is de\ufb01ned by (Johnston 2015) as taking account of \u201ccurrent and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities\u201d, which implicates all three dimen- sions of sustainability (e.g., economic, social, and environmental). The development of sustainable tourism plays an essential role in the achievement of Sustainable Devel- opment goals (Spencer 2021), but \u2013 at same time \u2013 a huge transformation challenge, when taking into account: (a) the size of the H&T sector, with unprecedented growth rates prior to the eruption of Covid-19 crisis, and a huge global impact on economy and society (Loureiro, Guerreiro, et al. 2021.a; Untaru et al. 2016); (b) severity of the cur- rent economic challenges, facing the consequences of Covid lockdown to travelling and new travelling safety concerns (Sung et al. 2021); (c) the observed slow adoption rate of pro-environmental practices, despite the industry\u2019s heavy environmental footprint, accountable for massive carbon emissions, waste generation, water and air pollution, and damage to natural ecosystems (Choi et al. 2015; Filimonau et al. 2018). With regards to the latest technological advancements, mobile device usage, espe- cially when enhanced by AR and VR features, can signi\ufb01cantly expand customer engage- ment and satisfaction (Loureiro 2020.b; Loureiro, Japutra, et al. 2021.b; Sharmin et al. 2021), including its potential bene\ufb01ts for the tourism customer. VR is an immersive 3D-simulated setting that allows consumers to have the feeling of being in a real-world environment (Guttentag, 2010), ampli\ufb01ed by VR gears, e.g., Dataglove and the EyePhone head-mounted display (Loureiro et al. 2020). On the other hand, AR is de\ufb01ned as a technology which relates purely virtual to purely real environments, where the observer is seeing the real world, but can also visualize virtual objects overlaid on it, usually by wearing see-through displays, or interacting with their own mobile devices. VR and AR can both be used to promote a touristic site or destination, by providing an immersive stimulation to tourists, and for improving the experience when visiting the selected destination (Loureiro 2021).","150 J. Nascimento and S. M. C. Loureiro A review of scienti\ufb01c literature is warranted to determine to which extent, the \ufb01elds of AR and VR technologies contribute towards in\ufb02uencing academic knowledge and facilitating the development of sustainable tourism. 3 Methods Bibliometric analysis was employed to achieve the study\u2019s objectives, as it permits to explore large datasets ef\ufb01ciently (Donthu et al. 2021). These quantitative techniques are applied in the measurement of bibliographic data, emerging as a legitimate scienti\ufb01c method, used nowadays across a wide variety of disciplines (Broadus 1987; Pereira and Bamel 2021). Science mapping was used to illustrate relationships between contributors and uncover the knowledge structure in the AR\/VR domains applied to H&T. Data were extracted on November 2021, from both Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus databases, applying the following query to title, abstract and keywords: ((\u201cvirtual reality\u201d OR \u201caugmented reality\u201d) AND (\u201csustainab*\u201d AND \u201ctourism\u201d)). The inclusion criteria considered only published articles in English language, in business, management, economics, social and environmental science domains. VOSviewer 1.6.17 was selected for conducting data analysis, due to the wide recog- nition earned among scholars, and powerful capabilities for generating bibliometric maps (van Eck and Waltman 2010). Citation, co-citation, co-authorship, bibliographic coupling, and co-word analysis were used to examine relationships among contributors and uncover the leading topics and research constituents (Donthu et al. 2021), after completing the required coding and veri\ufb01cation procedures. 4 Results From an original set of 139 hits (after merging the WoS and Scopus databases, and removing duplicates), mentioning either AR, VR, or sustainability\/tourism, only 18 arti- cles were identi\ufb01ed mentioning both designated search terms. The co-wording analysis results show that AR and VR are both positioned in the top-left corner, a peripheral role in the network, suggesting a low prevalence in the dataset (see Fig. 1). Conversely, arti\ufb01cial intelligence is the dominant topic in this research community, as can be concluded by both the central position occupied and the largest dot in the keyword co-occurrence fre- quency mapping. Technology and Sustainability terms are frequently employed, related and close to each other, meaning that they do often co-occur frequently, but neither is related to H&T in speci\ufb01c. Internet of things, big data analytics, circular economy, machine learning, blockchain, and industry 4.0 also deserve mentioning. When assessing the level of collaboration among research constituents, a way to fur- ther develop new, emerging research \ufb01elds (Christo\ufb01 et al. 2017; Kent Baker et al. 2020), a few isolated clusters are detected, albeit with a low level of co-authorship collaboration. With regards to authors\u2019 countries of af\ufb01liation, two intercontinental clusters are formed (Fig. 2): Australia, China, USA, Spain; and India, South Africa, France. England occu- pies a central position, connected to all other clusters, but more focused on exchanges with USA and European countries, such as France, Germany, and Poland. The co- authorship analysis (which illustrates the intellectual collaborations among academics)","The impact of Augmented and Virtual Reality for Sustainable Tourism 151 Fig. 1. Co-word analysis, based on author keywords\u2019 co-occurrence frequency. reveals three main cooperative networks, with an Australian-based co-authors\u2019 commu- nity (Bec et al., 2019, 2021) focusing on the use of VR in situations of over-tourism leads to deterioration of the destination sites, with studies concerned with immersive heritage tourism experiences, and the impacts of VR for second-chance tourism (Fig. 3). Fig. 2. Cooperative network of authors\u2019 countries of af\ufb01liation.","152 J. Nascimento and S. M. C. Loureiro Fig. 3. Cooperative network of authors. Evaluating the most in\ufb02uential studies, the article entitled \u2018A model of acceptance of augmented-reality interactive technology: the moderating role of cognitive innova- tiveness\u2019 (Huang and Liao 2014) stands-out due to the level of citations obtained. A few more recent contributions, such as the work on Digitalization as solution to environmen- tal problems? When users rely on augmented reality-recommendation agents\u201d (Joer\u00df et al. 2021) are also trending up regarding the volume of citations. The most frequently occurring topics were also examined, using text mining and con- tent analysis techniques, mainly capturing the leading theories, frameworks, and emerg- ing concepts, employed in relation to AR, VR, and sustainable tourism. Digital humans emerge as a prevalent topic, with designing collaborative strategies, auto-contractive mapping, behavioural reasoning theory, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, and ANN (Arti\ufb01cial Neural Networks) also uncovered in the dataset. 5 Conclusions Results demonstrate the lack of research addressing the challenges of technology adop- tion and environmental sustainability for tourism, as AR\/VR, sustainability, and tourism research \ufb01elds rarely intercept each other, which suggests a lack of understanding on how these innovative technologies can impact the development of sustainable tourism. Nevertheless, a few scarce, yet insightful examples, provide implications from adopt- ing VR and AR technologies in education, manufacturing, and retail sectors (Earle and Leyva-de la Hiz 2021; Joer\u00df et al. 2021; Zabel and Telkmann 2020), which may also bene\ufb01t H&T, and accelerate the transition to more a sustainable business paradigm.","The impact of Augmented and Virtual Reality for Sustainable Tourism 153 5.1 Managerial Implications The impacts of VR are currently more concerned with avoiding the destruction of natural destination sites and reducing risks of overcrowded attractions (Bec et al. 2021; Coghlan and Carter 2020; Martins et al. 2021), illustrated by immersive visualizations instead of being there (Streimikiene and Korneeva 2020), such as implemented during COVID- 19 pandemic crisis. However, for the future, VR can mean much more for the H&T industry, given the possibility of tourists to conduct trial runs (during the pre-trip phase), interacting with augmented booking services, and enjoying in-\ufb02ight VR entertainment experiences. A new level of immersive exploitation is offered by technologies such as Google Earth VR or IMMERSE, while marketers seek to unleash the potential of VR immersive, interactive marketing to promote destination sites, hotels, and experiences. With regards to AR, \ufb01ve major trends emerge from literature, with high-potential busi- ness applications: new navigation features, educational AR guides for tourists (e.g., city tours, museum guides), language support, innovative AR experiences, and interactivity (e.g., gami\ufb01cation, advertising, beacon\/push noti\ufb01cations). 5.2 Future Research Agenda By combining previously unrelated research streams, a new set of questions for the future is proposed, organized around four main thematic groups: (i) Theories and frameworks for accelerating the innovation roadmap; (ii) Strategic and competitive advantages for organizations; (iii) Impact of new technologies for Sustainable Development Goals; and (iv) Customer attitudes, motivations, and engagement. From these leading themes, a set of research questions is offered, to further advance knowledge on the role of AR, VR technologies for sustainable development in H&T: \u2022 What relationship between digitalization and internationalization, and how can this affect organizational sustainability readiness? \u2022 What are the reasons for or against adopting co-creation platforms, and how to increase their relevance? \u2022 How will the new global digital ecosystems (e.g., EU digital market) relate to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals in H&T? \u2022 How can technology boost the competitiveness of H&T market players, through augmented customer experiences? \u2022 Which areas of customer experience should be prioritized? \u2022 Which stakeholders should be involved in the process of designing collaborative strategies? \u2022 Which factors can enable or inhibit technology adoption, in H&T organizations? Do these vary across type of destination or stakeholder? \u2022 How can leadership, technological, environmental competences drive success? \u2022 What are the key success factors for entrepreneurs and SMEs to recognize AR\/VR bene\ufb01ts without compromising their identity? \u2022 What is the relationship between personal values-beliefs-norms, and customer willingness to use AR or VR-enabled H&T service agents? \u2022 What are the expectations and propensity to interact with VR or AR-enabled experiences, and preferred ways of interaction?","154 J. Nascimento and S. M. C. Loureiro \u2022 What are consumer attitudes towards digital humans? In summary, the H&T sector faces fundamental challenges for both the economic turnaround and implementing more environmentally sustainable practices, for which AR, VR innovations can offer signi\ufb01cant opportunities, as long as further attention is given to the speci\ufb01c impact for sustainable tourism in the nearby future. Acknowledgements. 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Stud. 18(4), 235\u2013266. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/16522354.2020. 1839172","Serious Game Reality and Industrial Museum: The \u2018Bryant and May Match Factory\u2019 Project in the Peoples\u2019 History Museum (UK) Timothy Jung1(B), Mariapina Trun\ufb01o2, and Salvatore Campana2 1 Faculty of Business and Law, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK [email protected] 2 Department of Management and Quantitative Studies (DISAQ), University of Naples \u2018Parthenope\u2019, Naples, Italy {Trunfio,Salvatore.campana}@uniparthenope.it Abstract. This paper capitalises on the opportunities and challenges to explore similarities and differences between consolidated new realities \u2013 augmented real- ity, virtual reality, and mixed reality \u2013 and hybrid technological realities to explore how the serious game reality\u2019s technological and functional elements in\ufb02uence visitors\u2019 experiences in museum and post-experience behaviours. Findings vali- date the in\ufb02uence of serious game reality functional elements on visitors\u2019 experi- ences, showing how embodiment continues to remain closely correlated to tradi- tional experience to drive post-experience behaviours. However, some theoretical questions remain open, considering the in\ufb02uence of 4.0 experience on museum post-experience. Keywords: Serious game reality \u00b7 Heritage museum \u00b7 Vsitors\u2019 experiences \u00b7 Visitors\u2019 behaviours 1 Introduction Hybrid technological realities, i.e., serious game reality (SGR), emerge in the literature as alternative solutions to AR and VR \u2013 including their perfect combination in MR \u2013 in the cultural heritage museum (Trun\ufb01o et al. 2022; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2021.b; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2021.a). SGR combines gaming hardware and software devices with AR or VR audio-visual technical qualities into interactive interfaces that enhance heritage exhibitions without sophisticated technological requirements, complex expertise or expensive hardware and software devices (Anderson et al. 2020; Banerjee et al. 2020; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2022; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2021.b). It introduces alternative forms of human-to-technology interaction that capture visitors\u2019 attention nd participation with the heritage and its theme (Anderson et al. 2010; Economou, 2015; Mortara et al. 2014), combining heritage valorisation and exploration with playful and joyful activities (Bec et al. 2019; Little et al. 2020; Schaper et al. 2018; Serravalle et al. 2019; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2021.a). \u00a9 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 T. Jung et al. (Eds.): XR 2022, SPBE, pp. 157\u2013167, 2023. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/978-3-031-25390-4_15","158 T. Jung et al. Conversely, AR, VR, and MR represent consolidated new realities for aca- demics, managers, and policymakers to reframe physical-virtual borders of the tradi- tional museum business models, visitors\u2019 experience, and post-experiences behaviours (Buhalis et al. 2019; Loureiro et al. 2020.a; Yung and Khoo-Lattimore 2019). They substitute the hard approaches of cultural heritage digitalisation with soft multimedia solutions of digital storytelling, enriching heritage exhibitions and promoting unusual ways to exploit it (Bec et al. 2019; Guttentag 2010; Serravalle et al. 2019; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2020; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2021.a). They exploit the pervasive power of the technology inter- activity and use in diverse sectors (e.g., videogames and entertainment) to introduce innovative forms of human-to-technology interactions enabled to amplify the traditional museum purpose based on the heritage valorisation and education with technology- driven immersive experiences, such as traditional experience, 4.0 experience, escapism, socialisation, edutainment, gami\ufb01cation (Lee et al. 2020; tom Dieck, Jung and tom Dieck 2018; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2020; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2021.a). Although numerous researches identify several opportunities for AR, VR, and MR in the cultural heritage domain (Bec et al. 2019; Guttentag 2010; Lee et al. 2020; Serravalle et al. 2019; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2020; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2021.a), SGR as an hybrid technological reality is mainly conceptual in literature and its applications remain an under-investigated topic (Anderson et al. 2010; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2022; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2021.b). Therefore, There- fore, this study capitalises on the opportunities and challenges to explore similarities and differences between consolidated new realities \u2013 AR, VR, and MR \u2013 and hybrid technological realities to explore how the SGR\u2019s technological and functional elements in\ufb02uence visitors\u2019 experiences in museum and post-experience behaviours represent grey areas and spaces for future investigation. 2 Conceptual Framework This research develops a conceptual framework to investigate the impact of SGR\u2019s func- tional elements on visitors\u2019 experience and post-experience behaviours in an English cultural heritage museum. Figure 1 shows nine constructs: six technological and func- tional dimensions related to AR, VR, and MR literature (format, museum information, usability, interaction, mapping, and embodiment) measured by twenty-one items (Flav- i\u00e1n et al. 2019.a, 2020; Hoffman and Nadelson 2010; Kidd 2019; Schick and Malm- borg, 2010; Seibert and Shafer, 2018; Skalski et al. 2011; Trun\ufb01o and Campana 2020); two technology-driven immersive experience dimensions (traditional experience and 4.0 experience) measured by \ufb01ve items (Trun\ufb01o and Campana 2020; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2020); and one behavioural effect dimension, measured by three items (Jung et al. 2016; Kim et al. 2020; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2021.a; Wei et al. 2019).","Serious Game Reality and Industrial Museum 159 Fig. 1. Conceptual framework 2.1 The Relationship between Format, Museum Information, and Usability SGR environment is built with advanced interfaces based on real-time computer graphics (Anderson et al. 2010) that use a rich set of format multimedia elements such as audios, images and videos, and touch (Trun\ufb01o and Campana 2020; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2020), including graphic elements for the game performing, such as music, sounds, animations, graphics, texts, symbols, and codes (Anderson et al. 2010; Liarokapis et al. 2017; Nylund et al. 2020). Format multimedia elements concern a key critical aspect of the museum, cre- ating immersive information and facilitating visitors\u2019 visualisation (Bekele et al. 2018; Fenu and Pittarello, 2018; Kounavis et al. 2012; Schaper et al. 2018; tom Dieck et al. 2016; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2021.a). The format enriches the heritage visualisation (such as mon- uments, paintings, artefacts, collections), reconstructing the historical period (Trun\ufb01o and Campana, 2020; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2020). Moreover, the format integration in heritage exhibitions requires authentic and original technological interfaces with a comfortable and easy-to-use design that can ensure clever access to the museum information (Trun\ufb01o and Campana 2020; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2020). H1: The format has a positive effect on museum information H2: The format has a positive effect on usability H3: Usability has a positive effect on museum information 2.2 The Relationship between Museum Information, Interaction, and Mapping Interactive visualisation and simulation environments engage visitors to experience phys- ically touching with the virtual and augment digital storytelling, solving gaming puz- zles and challenges in the museum servicescape, real and virtual multimedia elements, and interacting with other technologies (Anderson et al. 2010; Liarokapis et al. 2017; Trun\ufb01o and Campana, 2020; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2020). During the museum information visu- alisation, SGR attracts and engages visitors to the cognitive level (Mortara et al. 2014), manipulating and using button gaming controllers, electronic and tracking sensors, and multimodal screens enabled to improve their attention and interest. During this process, SGR technological elements are enabled to map visitors\u2019 interaction in form of body movements (such as gestures, languages, and gazes) or using tangible and intangible elements (Seibert and Shafer, 2018; Skalski et al. 2011) to reproduce exactly the visi- tors\u2019 physical actions desired in the digital environment and connect to real or virtual museum aspects (Steure 1993).","160 T. Jung et al. H4: Museum information has a positive effect on interaction H5: Museum information has a positive effect on mapping H6: Mapping has a positive effect on interaction 2.3 The Relationship between Interaction, Traditional Experience, 4.0 Experience, and Embodiment Using MR and SGR, museum cultural heritage exhibitions are transformed into multi- experiential and sensorial contexts (Ardito et al. 2018; He et al. 2018; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2021.a). They reframe the original museum value proposition based on learning in inno- vative experiences (Trun\ufb01o and Campana 2020; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2020), such as traditional experience and 4.0 experience. Traditional experience in a technological environment combines heritage valorisation and education, identifying an alternative way to learn through the interaction with multimedia elements that preserve and reduce heritage exploitation (Bec et al. 2019; Guttentag 2010; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2020). Conversely, the 4.0 experience combines entertainment, socialisation, and escape, proposing amusement visit forms that facilitate visitors\u2019 immersion and socialisation with the heritage (Conti et al. 2017; He et al. 2018; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2020). These experiences summarise the vis- itors\u2019 closeness and intimacy with the heritage, stimulating visitors to go beyond the gaming interface and look at the connections between physical and digital spaces, past and present, to feel truly embodied in the museum\u2019s digital storytelling (Flavi\u00e1n et al. 2019.b; Flavi\u00e1n et al. 2020; Kidd 2019; Tussyadiah et al. 2018). H7: Interaction has a positive effect on the traditional experience H8: Interaction has a positive effect on the 4.0 experience H9: Traditional experience has a positive effect on 4.0 experience H10: Interaction has a positive effect on the embodiment H11: The embodiment has a positive effect on the traditional experience H12: The embodiment has a positive effect on the 4.0 experience 2.4 The Relationship Between Traditional Experience, 4.0 Experience, and Behavioural Effects Immersive museum experiences stimulate visitors to memorize positive or negative reac- tions generated by the use of MR based on serious game reality, in\ufb02uencing future behavioural effects on cultural heritage (Jung et al. 2016; Kim et al. 2020; Lee et al. 2020; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2021.a; Tussyadiah et al. 2018.a; Wei et al. 2019). Visitors can increase the use of digital technologies in other museums or applications (Lee et al. 2020), improve the perception of the cultural heritage museum as unique and authentic (Kim et al. 2020; Lee et al. 2020), and re-visit the museum (Wei et al. 2019). H13: Traditional experience has a positive effect on behavioural effects. H14: 4.0 experience has a positive effect on behavioural effects.","Serious Game Reality and Industrial Museum 161 3 Methodology The research adopted a quantitative survey methodology to analyse the \u2018Bryant & May Match Factory in 1888\u2019 project, installed in the People\u2019s History Museum, in the \ufb01rst industrial city in the world, Manchester (UK). The project homages to the historical and cultural memory of two in\ufb02uential makers, Annie Besant and Jayaben Desai \u2212 combining past, present, and future heritage elements \u2212 to share knowledge on Britain\u2019s democracy. The MR\u2019s Project was organised in two sections: an arcade-style game and an AR installation. An arcade-style game based on button game stations stimulated visitors\u2019 exploration of the museum. Visitors discovered the harsh working conditions at the \u2018Bryant & May match factory in 1888\u2019 but their progress was hampered by unfair \ufb01nes and sickness. The AR installation allowed visitors to get up close to objects from PHM\u2019s collection, hearing the voices of those who were involved in strikes during the 1970s and 1980s. Visitors used devices to explore the digital content inserted in the exhibition, aiming the camera toward the gallery wall and searching the different POI to reveal the hidden objects, manipulating with actions of rotation or magni\ufb01cation the unnoticed details on the heritage. A self-administered questionnaire with face-to-face interviews after the visit to the museum was used for the empirical analysis. The measurement items adopted measure- ment items of the visitors\u2019 experience model for mixed reality in the museum (Trun\ufb01o and Campana 2020; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2020) in nine dimensions measured by twenty-nine items: format (three original items and one new item (Hsu and Wang, 2010)), usabil- ity (three original items), museum information (two original items), interaction (three original items and one new item (Hoffman and Nadelson 2010)), mapping (four items) (Seibert and Shafer 2018; Skalski et al. 2011), traditional experience (two items) and 4.0 experience (three items) (Trun\ufb01o et al. 2020), embodiment (four items) (Flavi\u00e1n et al. 2020; Kidd 2019; Tussyadiah et al. 2018); future behavioural effects (Jung et al. 2016; Kim et al. 2020; Wei et al. 2019). Items were re\ufb02ective and used a seven-point Linkert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree) (Joshi et al. 2015). A data sample of 295 visitors was collected from October to November 2020. The conceptual framework and related hypotheses employed a covariance-based structural equation modelling (CBSEM) analysis with a maximum-likelihood method (LM) using the eighth version of linear structural relationships (LISREL) software (J\u00f6reskog and S\u00f6rbom, 1982). Harman\u2019s (1967) single-factor test, as the main post hoc statistical procedure (Tehseen et al. 2017), was used in this study to indicate that common method variance was not an issue in the two measurement models (Tehseen et al. 2017). Con\ufb01rmatory factor analysis and correspondent reliability were conducted before the hypotheses test to examine the reliability of the observed variables (MacKenzie et al. 2005). 4 Findings Psychometric characteristics using the average variance extracted (AVE), composite reliability (CR), and Cronbach\u2019s alpha (\u03b1) in Table 1 (MacKenzie et al. 2005). It veri\ufb01ed the intra-correlations among all constructs in Table 1 (Fornell and Larcker 1981).","162 T. Jung et al. Table 1. CFA model. Constructs Items AVE CR \u03b1 Format Audio, music, and sounds .61 .86 .84 Images and videos Animations, graphics, texts, symbols, and codes Touch Museum information Exhibition .84 .91 .92 Historical period Usability Comfort .70 .87 .86 A clever alternative to access information Easy to use Interaction Museum servicescape .63 .87 .87 Multimedia elements Other technologies Mapping Interaction with only physical body .50 .76 .75 movements Interaction with the support of a technological device Interaction with the support of a screen display Interaction with the support of a museum tangible elements Traditional experience Heritage valorisation .53 .70 .71 Educational Experience 4.0 Entertainment .50 .75 .78 Socialisation Escape Embodiment Involvement in heritage awareness and .53 .77 .81 homage Integration between physical and digital spaces Immersion in the museum environment Connection between past and present Behaviour effects Increase the use of digital technologies .50 .71 .70 Re-visit the museum Promote the museum as authentic Note: \u03b1 -Alpha the Cronbach","Serious Game Reality and Industrial Museum 163 Table 3. Correlation. Constructs 123456789 1 Format .781 2 Museum information .599 .917 3 Usability .761 .601 .840 4 Interaction .269 .449 .270 .794 5 Mapping .197 .329 .198 .682 .707 6 Traditional experience .114 .191 .115 .425 .290 .728 7 4.0 experience .105 .175 .105 .390 .266 .474 .707 8 Embodiment .163 .273 .164 .607 .414 .725 .593 .728 9 Behavioural effects .067 .112 .067 .250 .170 .579 .287 .487 .707 LISREL 8 showed global \ufb01t with a good evaluation for both models: \u03c72 = 954.08, d.f. = 363, \u03c72\/d.f. = 2.62, GFI = .90; AGFI = .80, NFI = .94, NNFI = .96, CFI = .99, RMSEA = .074 (Bagozzi and Yi 2012; J\u00f6reskog and S\u00f6rbom 1996). The hypotheses testing showed the support of ten hypotheses and the rejection of two hypotheses in both museums (Table 4). Table 4. Hypotheses testing. H t-value p-value Support\/reject H t-value p-value Support\/reject H1 2.14 .01* Supported H8 .41 .6820 Rejected H9 \u2212.20 .8416 Rejected H2 12.40 .0001*** Supported H10 7.70 .0001*** Supported H11 8.29 .0001*** Supported H3 2.24 .01* Rejected H12 2.64 .001** Supported H13 5.13 .0001*** Supported H4 4.40 .0001*** Supported H14 .18 .8573 Rejected H5 4.16 .0001*** Supported H6 5.52 .0001*** Supported H7 \u22121.59 .1127 Rejected Note: *** < .0001; ** < .001; * < .01 5 Discussion, Conclusions, Research Implications, Limitations, and Future Research Lines The research builds and tests a conceptual framework to draw new scenarios on SGR exploration in the museum. Findings con\ufb01rm ten out of fourteen hypotheses, except for four hypotheses (H7, H8, H9, and H14), identifying preliminary theoretical and man- agerial implications that open future scenarios on the role of mapping and embodiment in the SGR research.","164 T. Jung et al. Firstly, mapping emerges strongly correlated between museum information and interaction. It provides information on how augmented and virtualised museum infor- mation in\ufb02uence visitors\u2019 participation and involvement to interact with the museum servicescape, multimedia augmented and virtualised elements, and other technologies (Seibert and Shafer 2018; Skalski et al. 2011; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2020), contributing to explain the manipulation actions generated by visitors to control the digital environment (Seibert and Shafer 2018). Secondly, embodiment sheds light on the technological-functional effects produced by the visitors\u2019 interaction with complex technologies (MR based on SGR) to alter conventional modalities to feel the experience in the museum (Flavi\u00e1n et al. 2019.a, 2020; Kidd 2019; Tussyadiah et al. 2018). It clari\ufb01es how visitors use SGR to feel involved with the experiential museum value proposition, reliving the harsh working conditions at the \u2018Bryant & May match factory in 1888\u2019, feeling awareness and homage. Thirdly, the embodiment construct provides information on how the interaction expe- rienced with SGR \u2013 is based on museum values of heritage valorisation and preservation, physical and digital integration, and past and present involvement (Flavi\u00e1n et al. 2019.a, 2020; Kidd 2019; Tussyadiah et al. 2018) \u2013 continues to remain closely correlated to traditional experience (Trun\ufb01o et al. 2020; Trun\ufb01o, Jung, et al. 2021b). Heritage val- orisation and education continue to be preferred motivations for the museum visit and in\ufb02uence post-experience behaviours (Trun\ufb01o et al. 2020; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2021.a, 2021.b). They overshadow the immersive 4.0 experience, such as entertainment, escape, and socialisation, in the museum and post-experience behavioural. They show how playful and serious gaming activities are designed to respect the original museum\u2019s experiential purpose without altering it with playful or joyful experiences that distract visitors (Ardito et al. 2018; Loureiro, Bilro, & Angelino, 2020; Raptis et al. 2018; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2020, 2022; Trun\ufb01o et al. 2021.a). Some questions remain open: What are the other MR applications based on the integration of 4.0 and 5.0 technologies that promote alternative forms of visitors\u2019 human-to-technology interaction in cultural heritage? How do alternative MR interfaces stimulate multiple senses simultaneously to improve the physical touching of virtual representations and objects, providing exciting new experiences? 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Manage. 71, 282\u2013293 (2019) Yung, R., Khoo-Lattimore, C.: New realities: a systematic literature review on virtual reality and augmented reality in tourism research. Curr. Issue Tour. 22(17), 2056\u20132081 (2019)","Creating Virtual Reality Stories for Cultural Heritage Through Student Contest Diana Andone1(B), Silviu Vert2, Marius Tataru1, Silviu Berzescu2, and Vlad Mihaescu2 1 eLearning Center, Politehnica University of Timisoara, Timisoara, Romania {diana.andone,marius.tataru}@upt.ro 2 Multimedia Center, Politehnica University of Timisoara, Timis,oara, Romania {silviu.vert,silviu.berzescu,vlad.mihaescu}@upt.ro Abstract. Cultural heritage bene\ufb01ts nowadays through the outburst of digital sto- rytelling methods and technologies. One of the interesting approaches is through student contests, in which the participants generate fresh perspectives on the tangi- ble and intangible heritage. At the same time, these contests help improve future skills in students. This chapter reports on such an international student contest organized in the frame of the Timisoara 2023 European Capital of Culture pro- gramme. We describe the design and implementation of the contest, as well as the process used by the winning students to develop the digital storytelling artefacts, as a useful case study for organizing such a happening. Keywords: Virtual reality \u00b7 Cultural heritage \u00b7 Student contest 1 Introduction Digital storytelling enhances the time-proven art of telling stories with the power of technology. One of the most impactful areas is cultural heritage, where digital storytelling has proven to bring both tangible and intangible heritage closer to people (Katifori et al. 2020). Cultural heritage is experienced is various ways today, going from visiting a physical exhibition, up to immersing in virtual reality stories. Spotlight Heritage Timisoara is a digital cultural initiative of the Politehnica Uni- versity of Timisoara realized in partnership with the National Museum of Banat, both located in Timisoara, Romania. Spotlight Heritage Timisoara reveals, by digital story- telling, the city of Timisoara through stories of cultural and historical heritage, technical development, communities, and neighborhoods, interwoven with the personal stories of the inhabitants of yesterday and today (Vert et al. 2021). The cultural initiative is part of the Timisoara 2023 European Capital of Culture of\ufb01cial programme. In this chapter, we present a case study of an international student contest dedicated to new digital storytelling artefacts in virtual reality, based on open data from the Spotlight Heritage Timisoara database. The case study details the design and implementation of the contest, as well as the process used by the winning students to develop the digital storytelling artefacts. \u00a9 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 T. Jung et al. (Eds.): XR 2022, SPBE, pp. 168\u2013177, 2023. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/978-3-031-25390-4_16","Creating Virtual Reality Stories for Cultural Heritage 169 2 Literature Review A very broad de\ufb01nition of virtual reality says that it means \u201cinducing targeted behavior in an organism by using arti\ufb01cial sensory stimulation, while the organism has little or no awareness of the interference\u201d (Steven M. LaValle, 2019). In cultural heritage, the virtual reality technologies have become mature enough that they can simulate com- plete interactive virtual environments in order for anyone to experience past and present cultures (Ch\u2019ng et al. 2018). Digital storytelling, with virtual reality or other similar technologies, engages the museum visitor by combining the powerful mechanism of the story with the possibilities of the digital technologies. It is a vehicle for edutainment, combining the instructive part of the museum with the entertaining part that the visitor expects, but it also enhances the visitor experience, transforming the static and traditional form of museum exhibitions into lively, accessible, and engaging experiences (Ioannidis et al. 2013). As for contests (and projects), they teach students how to learn on their own, to deal with failure, to overcome challenges, to communicate with team members, to divide up work and so on (Faste and Roth 1998). A student competition named IVRC (International Collegiate Virtual Reality Con- test), having the theme virtual reality, is presented by (Shirai et al. 2015). The contest, which has been going on since 1993, is for interactive products that use advanced tech- nologies like virtual reality and robots. The contest\u2019s primary objective is for participants to become familiar with modern technology through activities, self-made devices, and self-learning. Each of the IVRC members is allocated to a team and works in a collaborative environment. Over 200 projects were completed in Japan, with each project usually involving three people. The contest organizers received feedback from a team. Their project, called \u201cCHILDHOOD,\u201d aims to replicate a child\u2019s perspective and haptics while maintaining a user\u2019s natural embodied interactions. The IVRC challenge provided an excellent opportunity for discussing their concept and testing items, according to the team\u2019s response. In another study by (Figueroa et al. 2019), the authors present a contest focused on the creation of 3D User Interfaces (3DUI) in Mixed Reality Environments using passive haptic feedback. \u201cEscape Room in Mixed Reality with Passive Haptics\u201d was the theme of IEEE\u2019s 10th annual 3DUI contest in 2019. The contestants were required to create a passive haptics 3DUI with \ufb01ve of the following eight features: the user can rotate objects, insert an object into another, press, pull, and push objects, change the appearance of the objects, join objects into a larger object, squeeze the object or feel the pressure on an object, and feel or identify the geometry, weight, temperature, or other attributes of the objects.","170 D. Andone et al. The contestants were divided into groups of up to ten people, and nine teams sub- mitted designs in January 2019. All of the submissions were accepted for publication after being examined and judged, and they were all invited to be presented live at the 3DUI Contest. The international project TalkTech that has been going on for more than 10 years between students from Bentley University, USA, and those from the Politehnica Univer- sity of Timis,oara, Romania. In the last years, it demonstrated the bene\ufb01ts of virtual reality in education, but also those of collaboration between Romanian students and Americans ones. The students had to work together to create original virtual reality scenes. They used new multimedia technologies such as: CoSpaces, panoramic phones, 360 cameras connected to the phone via wi-\ufb01, Google Cardboard headset for a immersive experience, etc. During the project, the students collaborated with each other using various social platforms, they took into account the time zone differences and communicated in English to establish the convenient way of working. The CoSpaces platform was used as a development environment for virtual reality scenes; the interactions with objects were programmed using blocks of code; and to make everything as immersive as possible, they created 360 images that they placed in the virtual reality scenes. Following this project, students discovered a new way to use mobile phones, how to work in international teams, but also how to experience places and cultures without leaving their home, through virtual reality. Students from both countries were forced to cooperate and learn from each other; they easily overcame cultural and ethnic barriers (Andone et al. 2018). 3 The International Spotlight Heritage Student Contest An international student contest, henceforth called ISHSC 2021, was organized in order to promote and further develop the Spotlight Heritage Timisoara project. It was organized between October and December 2021, fully remote, by three universities from three different European countries: Politehnica University of Timisoara (Romania), Aalborg Universitet (Denmark), and Universit\u00e0 di Modena e Reggio Emilia (Italy). 3.1 Contest Regulations Regulations were prepared for the contest, based on previous experience of the authors, and also taking into account similar documentation seen in other competitions, but also on the speci\ufb01city of this particular contest. The contest required that students work in international teams either from 2 or from all 3 universities, the organisers being prepared to set up (if needed) a mix & match session between students, after all project ideas were submitted.","Creating Virtual Reality Stories for Cultural Heritage 171 The contest required the students to create a digital storytelling artefact in virtual reality or augmented reality with Spotlight Heritage resources, using the existing mul- timedia artefacts, text and stories, and integrating them in a virtual reality\/augmented reality experience. Moreover, the students were encouraged to create other multimedia or digital artefacts (e.g., 3D images), to integrate other functionalities or connect with their local\/national\/international stories. The Spotlight Heritage resources were made avail- able to the participants in raw format, upon their request. These resources are available publicly on a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Interna- tional License, in Romanian and English, on the Spotlight Heritage Timisoara website and in its mobile applications for Android and iOS. 3.2 Contest Results Three teams won the contest, two of them being composed of 1 student from each of the three universities. The teams used Email, Zoom and Discord to coordinate themselves and communicate between them and with the organizers. The applications were created in Blender, Unity and Cospaces Edu, platforms where the students worked collaboratively. The winning students had complementary skills: \u2022 The Italians were students in the specialization of \u201cHeritage Education and Digital Technologies\u201d. They came up with the narrative for the story, combining existing elements in a virtual story and extending them with their own ideas. \u2022 The Danish were students in the specialization \u201cGames (Medialogy)\u201d. They imple- mented the main structure of the virtual story, the interactions and animations. \u2022 The Romanians were students in the specialization \u201cMultimedia Technologies\u201d. They created the 3D models for the buildings and monuments, integrated the 360 photos, glued everything together in Unity and provided information on the Spotlight Heritage Timisoara places, people and connections, from the perspective of the locals. The winning applications contained four virtual tours of two churches from Timisoara, in a 3D virtual space with 360 images, old and new pictures, audio ele- ments, as well as information about the history and architecture of the buildings, the art objects inside them (paintings, stained glass windows, organs inside the churches), but also about the historical characters who left their mark in the construction, design and development of Timisoara buildings. All of these elements are integrated into an interactive and unique virtual reality application which the visitor can use to explore churches through digital storytelling artefacts in virtual reality. The applications are publicly available on the Cospaces Edu web (Fig. 1) and mobile platform and in the process of being published on the Oculus Quest store. An informal feedback was gathered from the students at the end of the contest. They appreciated the opportunity to interact and collaborate with students from other coun- tries, which improved their communication skills and their ability to integrate multiple perspectives on the same issue in their work. They also suggested that future editions of this contest should plan more time for students to collaborate in building the actual product, since one month (as in this \ufb01rst edition) was too short for those who studied and also worked at the same time.","172 D. Andone et al. Fig. 1. Screenshot of the virtual tour on the Cospaces Edu web platform 4 Technical Development of the Digital Storytelling Artefacts This section goes into more details regarding the work\ufb02ow and tools used by the winning teams in order to develop the virtual reality tours and artefacts. At the foundation of their work stood two major churches from Timisoara: The Roman-Catholic Church of The Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Millennium Roman- Catholic Church. For the two churches, students from Italy created unique stories. In order to establish the \ufb02ow of the application, the Italian students outlined in Miro the steps that should be taken in order to have an application as captivating as possible (Fig. 2). They used this online whiteboard to facilitate a better overview of the project. A big advantage of Miro is that everyone who had access to the link could see the changes in real time, could make changes and place comments. In one of the virtual tours, the church itself tells the story of The Roman-Catholic Church of The Sacred Heart of Jesus. From the beginning of the virtual tour, the users are greeted by the church\u2019s voice, and they have the opportunity to interact with the 3D model of the church. The users are informed about the church\u2019s history and architecture, after which they are invited to visit it. During the virtual tour, the church tells when it was founded, who designed it, and then the users can walk inside the church in a 360 environment. Inside the church, the user can hear a fragment from Netti Dr. Diel\u2019s stories, as they were integrated in the digital culture initiative. In the other virtual tour, the statue of St. John of Nepomuk tells the story of the Millennium Roman-Catholic Church. The users are on the alley in front of the church, in the \ufb01rst phase, where they are met by a statue of St. John of Nepomuk. The statue depicts some of the church\u2019s historical and architectural features. After the statue \ufb01nishes speaking, the user has two options: enter the church and begin the virtual tour, or walk around the church in a 3D environment. The user is met not just with information about","Creating Virtual Reality Stories for Cultural Heritage 173 Fig. 2. Outline of the virtual tour stories in Miro the church\u2019s elements, but also with fragments from interviews conducted by Smaranda Vultur, which are part of the Spotlight Heritage database. The stories created by the students from Italy were implemented in the application by the students from Denmark and Romania using tools such as Blender and Unity. The exteriors of the two churches were 3D-modelled in Blender and, in the case of the Millennium church, the surroundings were also created in 3D (alley with benches, trees, statue of St. John of Nepomuk, etc.). The 3D models of the churches followed very closely the reality. From the stained- glass windows to the clocks on the two towers of the Roman-Catholic Church of The Sacred Heart of Jesus, every physical detail was replicated (Fig. 3). Fig. 3. 3D model of the Roman-Catholic Church of The Sacred Heart of Jesus in Blender","174 D. Andone et al. The outside of the Millennium Roman-Catholic Church has also been carefully recreated to give the user the illusion of being there (Fig. 4). Fig. 4. 3D model of the Millennium Roman-Catholic Church in Blender Both 3D models were made with the polygonal modelling process, which starts with a simple primitive and adds extrusion and size modi\ufb01cations. The sculpting process was used to construct the 3D model of St. John of Nepomuk\u2019s statue for the best possible replication of reality (Fig. 5). Fig. 5. 3D model of St. John of Nepomuk\u2019s statue in Blender","Creating Virtual Reality Stories for Cultural Heritage 175 To texture all 3D models, only textures with a Creative Commons CC0 license were used. After creating the stories and 3D models, the Unity graphics engine was used to turn them into an application. For increased compatibility with numerous VR devices, Unity version 2019.4.35f1 was used. The Unity XR SDK was used to construct the VR interface. The communication between the application UI and the VR device was made possible with its help. Students from Denmark had created a tool that can add prefab elements to 360 photos to add points of interest, ensuring that all information is positioned and looks the same for all points of interest. This tool involves generating a collection of objects, which are represented by text and pictures, and are positioned in all necessary points of interest (Fig. 6). As a result, the information seems similar across all places of interest, and the implementation time is cut in half. Fig. 6. Generating points of interest in 360 images in Unity Figure 7 shows how the 360 images were positioned to match the interior places of the physical church. Thanks to this, the students from Denmark and Italy had had a better overview of the way the church looks and were able to create more interesting stories and precise interactions. The application was made available in both Romanian and English, which was pos- sible thanks to a script in C#. The users can change the language in the main menu which appears in the \ufb01rst scene. This menu can be easily accessed later from any scene.","176 D. Andone et al. Fig. 7. Map of 360 images, composing the virtual tour of the interior of the churches, as seen in development mode in Unity 5 Conclusions Cultural heritage is experienced in many forms today, one of the most successful being digital storytelling. To bring fresh perspectives in this area, but also contribute to development of future skills, student contests are organized. In this chapter, we described a case study of an international student contest which took place towards the end of 2021 in the frame of the Spotlight Heritage Timisoara project, part of the Timisoara 2023 European Capital of Culture. Students from three universities in Europe took the challenge to create novel multime- dia and virtual reality artefacts based on open data from the Spotlight Heritage Timisoara, a cultural initiative which reveals, by digital storytelling, the city of Timisoara (Romania) through of\ufb01cial stories of cultural and historical heritage but also the personal stories of its inhabitants. The contest was perceived in a positive way by the students, who appreciated the experience that they gained in collaborating and communicating between them and especially in multicultural teams. We described the work\ufb02ow used by the winning students to develop the digital storytelling artefacts, consisting in virtual tours of two churches from Timisoara, in a 3D virtual space with 360 images, old and new pictures, audio elements, as well as information about the history and architecture of the buildings, the art objects inside them, but also about the historical characters who left their mark in the construction, design and development of Timisoara buildings. The greatest advantage of the winning teams seems to have been the complementarity of their university backgrounds and personal skills. The contest demonstrated how local cultural heritage can be explored and enriched through international collaboration and how this can be used as a project-based learning technique within virtual reality, developing future skills for university students.","Creating Virtual Reality Stories for Cultural Heritage 177 Acknowledgements. The International Spotlight Heritage Student Contest 2021 was imple- mented in the frame of the cultural project Spotlight Heritage Timisoara, co-\ufb01nanced by the Timisoara City Hall and Timis City Council. References Andone, D., Vert, S., Frydenberg, M., Vasiu, R.: Open virtual reality project to improve stu- dents\u2019 Skills. In: 2018 IEEE 18th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT), pp. 6\u201310 (2018). https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1109\/ICALT.2018.00008 Ch\u2019ng, E., Cai, Y., Thwaites, H.: Special Issue on VR for culture and heritage: the experience of cultural heritage with virtual reality: guest editors\u2019 introduction. Presence. Teleoper. Virtual Environ. 26(3), iii\u2013vi (2018) Faste, R., Roth, B.: The design of projects and contests-the rules of the game. J. Robot. Mechatron. 10, 7\u201313 (1998) Figueroa, P., Guo, R., Takashima, K., Weyers, B.: Escape room in mixed reality: 10th annual 3DUI contest. 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This paper examines the process of developing an on-site innova- tive work\ufb02ow for virtually reconstructing and representing the ruined Southern Decumanus of Jerash. The work\ufb02ow involves capturing several related segments of disassembled and damaged Corinthian pillars using a digital camera to be imported into a 3D automated photogrammetric reconstruction-based software. The process uses digital photographs acquired in the \ufb01eld to reconstruct and reassemble virtu- ally all the destroyed parts using Agisoft Metashape \u2013 a tool for photogrammetry pipeline \u2013 and Autodesk Meshmixer \u2013 a software for editing and cleaning meshes. The process also discusses managing and implementing the virtually reconstructed outputs utilising Unreal Engine (UE) to create an entire 3D virtual interactive envi- ronment for the Southern Decumanus. The new Virtual Reality (VR) system of Oculus Quest has been used in this research for visualisation and experiencing the reconstructed, reassembled virtual archaeological site. The experimental VR simulation would allow a future visitor an enhanced walk-through featuring an off-site interactive, immersive experience compared to the real-world one, which does not exist in reality and is therefore unavailable in-situ. Keywords: Cultural heritage \u00b7 Southern Decumanus of Jerash \u00b7 Virtual heritage \u00b7 Virtual reconstruction \u00b7 Photogrammetry \u00b7 Immersive technologies \u00b7 And virtual reality 1 Introduction Jordan is brimming with breath-taking cultural heritage sites and mysterious relics of the past. It has been home to several of humankind\u2019s earliest settlements and the mate- rial remains of many of the world\u2019s great civilisations can still be seen there today. The Roman city of Gerasa, also known as Jerash, is a Decapolis \u2013 one of the greatest ten cities on the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire (Jones 1928). Although numerous monuments are still intact, several other parts of the city, known for its 1000 columns, have been signi\ufb01cantly damaged or destroyed altogether. A visitor of Jerash would notice \u00a9 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 T. Jung et al. (Eds.): XR 2022, SPBE, pp. 178\u2013205, 2023. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/978-3-031-25390-4_17","An Interactive and Immersive Walk-Through Experience 179 that numerous columns are dilapidated, and their segments are scattered on the grounds of what is today an archaeological site and visitor attraction. The Southern Decumanus is one of these monuments that is mostly destroyed, leading to the fact that it has been neglected for many years with only little effort or an attempt to restore or reassemble its fragments by traditional, physical means (Fig. 1). The importance of this research chie\ufb02y arises from the fact that physical traditional solutions are showing their incapac- ity for documenting, reconstructing and representing the amount of destroyed physical heritage assets and confront the rapid accelerated heritage destruction, while modern advanced digital technologies offer unprecedented opportunities for reconstruction and preservation (Abdelmonem et al. 2017). Fig. 1. Southern Decumanus of Jerash Recently, advanced 3D digitisation techniques have been used in the service of pre- serving, documenting, and disseminating different physical and non-physical heritage assets (Kalay et al. 2008). One of these advancements represented in the advent of a powerful technology able to capture and digitise physical objects accurately, such as photogrammetric modelling using computer-vision algorithms, namely, Structure from Motion (SfM) and Multi-View Stereo (MVS). Compared to other recording and mod- elling methods, images can be acquired with relatively inexpensive systems and contain all the information to generate detailed and photorealistic 3D models. Virtual Reality (VR) is an immersive technology application utilised to simulate an environment that otherwise is impossible in the real physical world using different computer technolo- gies in visualisation, sound, and interaction (Sherman and Craig 2003). Implementing such technology enhances the experience by isolating visitors entirely from the physical world and bringing them inside a synthetic interactive, immersive environment, where they can walk, explore, and interact virtually with simulated environments and heritage assets (Tschirschwitz et al. 2019).","180 N. Rihani 2 The Current State of the Site Jerash is regarded as one of the most well-preserved and complete Roman provincial cities in the Middle East and worldwide. It has multiple paved and colonnaded streets, and it contains over a thousand columns with different types of capital orders: Corinthian, Ionic, and Doric (Wheeler 1964). Corinthian columns can be seen in the grand colon- naded street (Cardo Maximus), the secondary colonnaded streets (e.g., the Southern Decumanus), and some temples like the Temple of Artemis. Several columns across the whole heritage site of Jerash were destroyed partially or entirely by numerous factors including earthquakes, wars, vandalism, and mass tourism. The debris and the remnants of the damaged columns can be clearly seen scattered all over the archaeological site. The site is currently, due it its abandoned and unsafe state, not totally accessible for public visitors. The fallen columns have a negative in\ufb02uence, since their appearance is not visually and aesthetically appropriate for the visitors. Also, they affect the visitors\u2019 movement within the archaeological site and offer physical barriers to proceed with their experiences in certain areas. Some of these columns were restored and renovated to their original condition, but a most of them remain neglected and scattered on the ground, without any minimal effort that went into re-assembling or restoring them. This may will be attributed to the cost of physical restoration, the lack of well-practised and experts technical staff specialised in such sensitive heritage restoration projects, and the massive weight and the size of the column components themselves. A reconstruction would require special vehicles and cranes to be used in the heritage site, which entails numerous practical problems. The Southern Decumanus is one of the main secondary axes that links the ancient city from east to west; it lies perpendicular to the main Cardo Maximus, and they cross in the Tetrapylon (Fig. 2). This monument was signi\ufb01cantly affected and ultimately destroyed by different factors. If visitors had access, they would notice that numerous columns are demolished, with their parts strewn on the ground of what is today an important archaeological site and an attraction for many visitors (Fig. 3). Fig. 2. Southern Decumanus crossing the Cardo Maximus","An Interactive and Immersive Walk-Through Experience 181 Fig. 3. Fallen, damaged Corinthian column parts on the ground of the Southern Decumanus of Jerash 3 The Contribution of Technological Advances in Cultural Heritage Recently UNESCO af\ufb01rmed that several signi\ufb01cant heritage sites are increasingly threat- ened due to environmental effects, including climate change, natural disasters, armed con\ufb02icts, mass tourism, and negligence (UNESCO, 2019). This has led to a global increase in the demand to digitally preserve threatened signi\ufb01cant monuments and arte- facts. Our world is losing architectural and historical treasures today more rapidly than ever before and many of them without them being digitally documented. Of course, gov- ernments and organisations are attempting to document and preserve these treasures, but more is needed to be done since they will otherwise be lost forever. The neglected, threat- ened and destroyed artefacts scattered on the ground of the heritage site of Jerash and the Southern Decumanus are in danger of being moved, looted, demolished, or vandalised, now and in the future. Traditional reconstruction solutions are not appropriate at such signi\ufb01cant sites, as they could be seen as fake, inauthentic, or even damaging to the original physical fabric of authentic remains. Also, such propositions require specialist equipment and restoration skills, which are costly and time-consuming. Consequently, this makes physical restoration dif\ufb01cult in many cases.","182 N. Rihani Virtual Heritage (VH) is a computer-based interactive technology in VR creating a visual 3D representation of monuments, artefacts, buildings, and culture to deliver sites openly to global audiences (Noh et al. 2009). According to El-Hakim et al. (2004), there are several motives for virtual heritage reconstruction: \u2022 Recording historic buildings and objects for reconstruction or restoration in case of disasters. \u2022 Reconstructing virtually historical monuments that no longer or only partially exist. \u2022 Visualising scenes from viewpoints impossible in the real world due to size or accessibility issues. \u2022 Interacting with objects without risk of damage. \u2022 Offering virtual tourism in the cases of restricted humans\u2019 mobility and accessibility, for instance, the travel ban that recently imposed in different countries over humans due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The last two decades have seen an unprecedented transformation in the creation of 3D models and digital replicas, as many artefacts, monuments, and whole sites have been documented and transformed into various digital versions (Girbacia et al. 2013). The signi\ufb01cance of adopting heritage virtual reconstruction is to protect, preserve, and interpret culture and history (Creed et al. 2013), and to bringing back some elements from the past (including physical or non-physical assets) for modern users (Boboc et al. 2019). These digital models are \ufb02exible and variable in their ability to include different graphical and textual information, such as dimensions, colours, textures, and some data related to artefacts\u2019 historical periods (Kysela and \u0160torkov\u00e1 2015). The most common used practise of 3D photogrammetric reconstruction in the \ufb01eld of cultural heritage is capturing, documenting, and representing digitally different historical assets based on their images (Maiwald et al. 2017). By enhancing digital tools and photogrammetric reconstruction technology and the capabilities of new digital cameras, this method has become more effective and less costly (Atkinson 1996). By employing this technology of creating 3D models from 2D images it is now possible to understand the historical objects and its environment virtually, with less need for physical contact with the original heritage objects. High-end digital software and hardware tools offer an outstanding ability to restore these neglected and ruined artefacts through capturing, reconstructing, reassembling, visualising, and experiencing such valued objects virtually. Implementing these new propositions also provide emerging countries such as Jordan with a rapid and low- cost documentation method to record all the neglected historical objects in unpreserved heritage sites.","An Interactive and Immersive Walk-Through Experience 183 Digital technologies are shifting the ways people experience both the real-world and virtual environments. For instance, VR technology isolates users from physical envi- ronments to put them in a virtual synthetic world, where they are immersed completely within the new environment (Milgram and Kishino 1994). Implementing such technol- ogy within the cultural heritage tourism domain is still a growing topic involved experts, academics, and the wider public (Flavi\u00e1n et al. 2019). VR is one of the Extended Reality applications that effectively facilitates users\u2019 imagination and interaction with virtual environments and contents, through immersive interactive and engaging experiences (Rebelo et al. 2012). The new VR systems are characterised by high degrees of immer- sion, trustworthiness, and interaction, as its objective is to make users believe that they are really within the synthetic environment and simulates reality (Alqahtani et al. 2017). In this research the VR technology is employed to allow visitors to visit remotely a signi\ufb01cant destroyed monument in Jerash and virtually interact with its reconstructed parts for deeper understanding of artefacts and site (Fig. 4). Fig. 4. Digital reconstruction using 3D photogrammetric process to create an entire 3D interactive virtual environment experienced using VR system 4 Proposed Methodology and Experiment Work\ufb02ow This section presents the work\ufb02ow for the proposed reconstruction of fallen and dam- aged Corinthian columns that are part of the Southern Decumanus of Jerash through a set of high-quality photos that were captured during a site visit on the heritage site, and which were subsequently modelled in 3D using photogrammetric reconstruction process of Metashape software and Meshmixer for mesh editing and assembling the reconstructed parts. The reconstructed digital output of 3D generated virtual columns were managed using the Unreal Engine (UE) game engine, as the virtual assets are later to be visualised and experienced through the Oculus Quest VR headset system. In this section the researcher is demonstrating the work\ufb02ow process that starts with image","184 N. Rihani acquisition, \ufb01eld processing and later 3D photogrammetric reconstruction; all of which will feed into my proof-of-concept VR visualisation. Figure 5 illustrates the main phases of the proposed methodology and experiment work\ufb02ow: pre-processing, processing, and post-processing. 4.1 Pre-processing Phase This phase comprises the \ufb01eld work and the process of capturing photos for the required column parts before starting the 3D photogrammetric reconstruction. The image-based 3D reconstruction method usually involves collecting the largest possible corpus of digital photos to produce the required 3D textured photogrammetric models. For the requisite data acquisition, a 24.1 Megapixel Canon EOS M50 DSLR camera was used in this study to acquire photos and cover all the column segments with high quality digital photos, taken from different viewpoints, to obtain the good amount of overlap possible. The number of photographs required varies according to the complexity of the column segment, size, and the resolution required of the 3D digital model. Compared to active sensors (e.g., laser-scanning method), the outcome of the point cloud model using image-based reconstruction method is not to scale. Therefore, a scale bar was used as a reference to de\ufb01ne the scale of column parts.1 Fig. 5. Main proposed methodology and work\ufb02ow for digitally reconstructing the Southern Decumanus and developing an enhanced VR experience 1 Laser-scanning method directly measures the components of XYZ positions for the object using embedded coordinates.","An Interactive and Immersive Walk-Through Experience 185 The fallen column segments were determined and selected that required to be cap- tured and reconstructed photogrammetrically. The chosen parts were found in the area behind the destroyed Southern Decumanus, and adjacent to the plinths (horizontal bases) where the columns were previously standing. Figure 6 illustrates different photos for the captured Corinthian column segments required for the digital reconstruction of the Southern Decumanus and their current condition in the site. Fig. 6. Selected Corinthian column segments for digitally reconstructing the Southern Decumanus 4.1.1 The Site Survey and Category of Captured Photos A collection of 1844 photos was captured in total for all damaged parts of the columns in high-resolution quality (4K) during six hours of \ufb01eldwork. The average number of captured images for the column segments varied, based on the object size, complexity, and level of detail. For example, some parts required around 90 images, while others signi\ufb01cantly exceeded 170. The ruler used as a scale reference was placed close to the locations, in order to adjust the scale of the captured parts. The captured photos sought to cover all the required damaged parts from different angles, with a high amount of overlapping, to catch the maximum level possible of details.","186 N. Rihani During the site visit and \ufb01eldwork, the researcher noticed a destroyed and scattered collection of different ruins on the ground behind the area of Southern Decumanus. This collection contains several segments of a damaged Corinthian column, in addition to lower and upper beams (the base and upper cornice). These parts and their arrangement on the ground offered an indication that these parts were related to each other, and this was clear from the similarity of the texture and the external outline shape between the segments. Also, the massive weight of each part precluded the possibility that someone had moved them. All these segments were found in the same area, adjacent and close to each other, with a maximum distance of around 20\u201330 cm. It was visibly noticeable that the shape of the external surfaces for some destroyed parts were well-matched and compatible with others, which con\ufb01rms that all the captured segments belong to one source from previous complete columns, as Fig. 7 shows. Fig. 7. Compatibility of the external surface shape between the damaged segments of the Corinthian columns Moreover, old Roman walls adjacent to the Southern Decumanus digitally recon- structed to create an entire 3D environment, containing the Corinthian column \ufb02anks and the walls. The researcher categorised the captured photos into three main groups: columns, beams, and walls. Tables 1, 2 and 3 illustrate the adopted categories for the digital photogrammetric reconstruction process for the entire ruins collection (columns, beams, and walls, respectively). The tables below show the name and number of captured photos for each part necessary for the reconstruction process.","An Interactive and Immersive Walk-Through Experience 187 Table 1. Digitally reconstructed columns showing object names and photos Segment Architectural Captured Segment Architectural Captured name description photos name description photos number number C1 Base C2 Short segment 102 122 C3 Short segment 103 C4 Short segment 99 C5 Short segment 106 C6 Short segment 117 C7 Long segment 133 C8 Crown\/ capital 147","188 N. Rihani Table 2. Digitally reconstructed beams showing object names and photos Segment Architectural Captured Segment Architectural Captured name description photos name description photos number number B1 Lower beam B2 Upper beam 97 93 Table 3. Digitally reconstructed walls showing object names and photos Segment Architectural Captured Segment Architectural Captured name description photos name description photos number number W1 Flat wall W2 Flat wall 178 181 W3 Flat wall 173 W4 Corner wall 193 4.2 Processing Phase This phase involves the 3D photogrammetric reconstruction process, starting from importing images into the automated software, camera calibration, aligning images,","An Interactive and Immersive Walk-Through Experience 189 generating point cloud (SfM), building dense point cloud (MVS), creating 3D meshes and \ufb01nally generating a 3D textured model (Fig. 8). Fig. 8. Process of aligning photos, generating point cloud, densi\ufb01cation, and textured 3D mesh All the photos for the complete required heritage assets collection (Corinthian column segments, beams, and walls) were imported individually as separate \ufb01les into Metashape software to be digitally reconstructed. Figure 9 shows some screenshots of the 3D pho- togrammetric reconstruction process to generate one complete Corinthian column, four walls, and two beams (cf. Tables 1, 2 and 3).","190 N. Rihani Fig. 9. Screenshots of the digital reconstruction process of the entire collection 4.3 Post-processing Phase The last phase before VR visualisation installations involves editing the missing meshes, holes \ufb01lling, re\ufb01ning, and mesh optimisation using editing meshing software, such as Meshmixer and MeshLab (Fig. 10). Figure 11 illustrates the entire set of 3D edited models after the post-process phase. Each model in the collection was captured from a speci\ufb01c number of photos, and was then cleaned, edited, re\ufb01ned, optimised, marked, and exported as (*.fbx) \ufb01les to be ready for assembling and transferring to the UE game engine. It can be seen that the edited","An Interactive and Immersive Walk-Through Experience 191 Fig. 10. Surface editing and holes \ufb01lling process using inspector tool and digital cloning and exported 3D digital models\u2019 appearances are slightly different from the original physical artefacts, which is expected, as the mesh and texture are exposed to different modi\ufb01cations during software transfers. 4.3.1 3D Models Assembling This part is one of the most interpretative, sensitive, and crucial activities of post- processing phase. It presents one of this research main contributions to knowledge in terms of reconstructing and assembling such destroyed artefacts. In this phase the risk of mistakes needs to be minimised by acting the role of the expert. Working in such experiments can highlight the process of bringing interdisciplinary expertise together from different \ufb01elds and the importance to work for instance with architects, historians knowing the Roman architecture and digital restoration techniques. The main objective in this phase is to assemble the entire 3D assets according to their previous composition in the real site and represent them back to their original appearance before being destroyed virtually. All the 3D models in (*.fbx) \ufb01le formats were imported into Meshmixer to be merged and assembled in three main sets: column segments, beams, and stone wall fa\u00e7ades.","192 N. Rihani Fig. 11. The entire collection for the digitised parts after the post-processing phase In this sensitive phase, a high level of accuracy was considered while assembling the 3D generated models. The process of assembling the column \ufb02anks and their com- ponents (column segments and beams) was not random, rather a sequential order was used to guarantee placing each item accurately in its previous original position. The researcher noted that the texture and shape of the external surfaces for the captured damaged photogrammetric segments were similar and shared the same external surface and the crack line shape (between at least two segments). Consequently, this proves the researcher assumption that all the found and captured segments (in the study area) belong to one monument and have not been moved from different positions; consequently, they","An Interactive and Immersive Walk-Through Experience 193 all originally formed intrinsic parts of the Southern Decumanus. Figure 12 shows some screenshots from Meshmixer during the process of assembling the \ufb01rst Corinthian col- umn, starting from segments (C1) and (C2). It can clearly be seen that the external surface outlines for both parts (the two thin yellow lines) match each other signi\ufb01cantly. Fig. 12. Assembling and matching two photogrammetric segments of a Corinthian column of the Southern Decumanus (C1 and C2) by outline surfaces using Meshmixer Moreover, the researcher observed that some destroyed column segments contained distinctive signs and stone marks, such as some cavities in the external surface, probably due to corrosion associated with weathering or vegetation (including the green layer of stone fungus and patina). Some cavities and green marks were found between some cap- tured segments, namely in the parts (C3), (C4), (C5), and (C6). Figure 13 illustrates and explain the matching analysis between the captured photogrammetric column segments. It can be seen that the outlines of the cavity and stone marks are continuous between the two segments, indicating that there was one large cavity in the body of the column (spanning different segments) before destruction. Also, I found a continuous stone mark between segments (C3) and (C4), and between (C5) and (C6). This also provides evi- dence that these short segments were originally one long segment before the collapse of the column. Such distinctive marks and cavities found in the scanned photogrammetric models facilitated determining the sequence order of the segments and the assembling work\ufb02ow. The entire process of data acquisition and 3D photogrammetric reconstruction was applied over different column segments found in the same study area. The proposed methodology was carried out to generate and digitally reconstruct the entire collection found of the Sothern Decumanus column segments. The collection comprises twelve segments from each type (C1, C2, B1, B2 etc.) to create twelve different complete Corinthian columns in total."]


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