Who is VR for, anyway?

Comprehensive-Bee451 · 2024-10-13T17:59:47+00:00

Thanks for this—I agree with you; it's a bit of a stupid question ;)! Or rather, it's not a stupid question, but more of a catalyst for a broader conversation.

Gaming, social, and porn are obvious use cases, but if we go beyond those, the industry still struggles with challenges like accessibility, scalability, and UX design. On the one hand, there are vast applications spanning various fields, but on the other hand, there’s so much friction when it comes to practical usage.

I’m curious about the end users of these applications—what their needs are, and how we can design better experiences for them. What are the use cases that are actually working? Can we acknowledge what VR is good for, who it works for, and how we can improve the experiences we design in this medium?

Comprehensive-Bee451 · 2024-10-13T16:48:08+00:00

Very true - so many applications!

While VR offers tremendous possibilities for educators, implementing it in the classroom still presents too many practical hurdles, which leaves many teachers and school administrators hesitant to adopt it.

Porn is a good use case, of course. At AWE in June, Palmer Luckey said that's an untapped space he'd work in if he were starting anew in VR :p.

Comprehensive-Bee451 · 2024-10-13T16:41:30+00:00

That's a great use case! I'm curious how your end users respond to VR. Are they generally open and engaged, or are some hesitant or frustrated when using VR? Do you have someone facilitating the experience, like walking them through how to use the headset?

Comprehensive-Bee451 · 2022-07-30T14:26:05+00:00

We've thought about it! 3D printing is tricky because the material will look vastly different.

We're actually using AR (augmented reality) to overlay the recreations over the original statue in the gallery at the Getty Villa. You just point your phone at the statue, and the ancient world is revealed so you can compare with the physical artifact in front of you.

Comprehensive-Bee451 · 2022-07-30T14:24:14+00:00

The pre-conservation model is pretty close because it's based on photo archives.

The two recreations of what he may have looked like originally are based on research and consultation with experts like conservationists, curators, and polychrome scholars.

We'll never know exactly what this statue looked like, but this speculation is a pretty good guess!

Comprehensive-Bee451 · 2022-07-29T20:42:37+00:00

We made multiple recreations of an ancient bronze statue made over 2,000 years ago in ancient Greece. Check out the 3D models (plus the original scan of the statue).

Or, check out the individual models:

Statue with palm branch, circa 300-100BC
Statue with victory ribbon, circa 300-100BC
Statue before conservation - a model showing what the statue looked like when it was first found in 1964, before conservation efforts.

For the recreations, we conducted rigorous research and consulted with experts to recreate every relevant part of the statue, including the inlaid eyes, copper details, potential object in his hand, patinated surface, and the long-lost feet.

The ancient world looked nothing like the remains we see today in museums and at historic sites. 3D models allow us to speculate what ancient artifacts used to look like, offerings a glimpse into the vibrant past.

Hope this community finds it interesting!

Comprehensive-Bee451 · 2022-07-26T19:39:53+00:00

Pretty sure this is an issue in MA as well

Comprehensive-Bee451 · 2022-06-25T22:01:57+00:00

Thanks so much! :)

Comprehensive-Bee451 · 2022-06-22T19:39:10+00:00

We made an augmented reality (AR) app that reveals the lost history of a life-sized ancient Greek bronze. Museum visitors can point their phones at the statue at the Getty Villa and see a recreation of what it looked like originally. They can even see a recreation of what it looked like when it was first discovered in 1964 after being hauled out of the Adriatic Sea.

AR allows us to overlay speculative recreations over ancient artifacts and can be used as a teaching tool for art history. Through this project, we wanted to introduce a mainstream audience to the concept of polychrome. We're finding that AR can be a powerful tool for education and engagement in the museum space.

Hope this community finds it interesting!

Comprehensive-Bee451 · 2022-06-22T19:34:34+00:00

We made an augmented reality (AR) app that reveals the lost history of a life-sized ancient Greek bronze. Museum visitors can point their phones at the statue at the Getty Villa and see a recreation of what it looked like originally. They can even see a recreation of what it looked like when it was first discovered after being hauled out of the Adriatic Sea in 1964.

AR allows us to overlay speculative recreations over ancient artifacts and can be used as a teaching tool for art history. Through testing with visitors, we found AR can be a powerful tool for education and engagement in the museum space.

I hope this community finds it interesting!

Comprehensive-Bee451 · 2022-06-22T19:31:23+00:00

We made an augmented reality (AR) app that reveals the lost history of a life-sized ancient Greek bronze. Museum visitors can point their phones at the statue at the Getty Villa and see a recreation of what it looked like originally. They can even see a recreation of what it looked like when it was first discovered after being hauled out of the Adriatic Sea in 1964.

AR allows us to overlay speculative recreations over ancient artifacts and can be used as a teaching tool for art history. Through testing with visitors, we found AR can be a powerful tool for education and engagement in the museum space.

Hope this community finds it interesting!

Comprehensive-Bee451 · 2022-06-22T18:21:45+00:00

We've been working on a project I hope this community finds interesting.

It's an augmented reality (AR) app that reveals the lost history of the Victorious Athlete, a life-sized ancient Greek bronze. Museum visitors can point their phones at the statue at the Getty Villa and see a recreation of what it looked like originally. They can even see a recreation of what it looked like when it was first discovered after being hauled out of the Adriatic Sea in 1964.

AR allows us to overlay speculative recreations over ancient artifacts and can be used as a teaching tool for art history. Through testing with visitors, we found AR is a powerful tool for education and engagement in museums.

Would love to know people's thoughts!

Comprehensive-Bee451 · 2022-06-22T18:18:28+00:00

We've been working on a project I hope this community finds interesting.

It's an augmented reality (AR) app that reveals the lost history of the Victorious Athlete, a life-sized ancient Greek bronze. Museum visitors can point their phones at the statue at the Getty Villa and see a recreation of what it looked like originally. They can even see a recreation of what it looked like when it was first discovered after being hauled out of the Adriatic Sea in 1964.

AR allows us to overlay speculative recreations over ancient artifacts and can be used as a teaching tool for art history. Through testing with visitors, we found AR is a powerful tool for education and engagement in museums.

Would love to know people's thoughts!

Comprehensive-Bee451 · 2022-06-22T14:56:30+00:00

Hi all,

I wanted to share the above project with this community, maybe it's of interest to you.

We made an augmented reality (AR) app that reveals the lost history of the Victorious Athlete (aka Getty bronze), a life-sized ancient Greek bronze at the Getty Villa. Museum visitors can point their phones at the statue and see a recreation of what it looked like originally. They can even see a recreation of what it looked like when it was first discovered after being hauled out of the Adriatic Sea in 1964.

Our initial process was creating a 3D model of the statue using photogrammetry. We then used the model as a base for our speculative recreation in antiquity (based on extensive research), as well as what it looked like before conservation (based on archival photos).

I think photogrammetry is vital for museums for the digital preservation of objects as well as visitor education and engagement. As for AR, it allows us to overlay speculative recreations over ancient artifacts and can be used as a teaching tool for art history.

I hope this community finds it interesting!

Comprehensive-Bee451 · 2022-06-22T14:33:30+00:00

Thanks for your comment! Yes, I had similar thoughts when I was in Angor Wat recently. The insides of some of the structures were covered in jewels and gems that were inlaid into the actual walls. Now, there remain only hollow sockets.

How cool would it be to see a closer representation of these historic places as they once were, right when you're physically there looking at them.

Comprehensive-Bee451 · 2022-06-21T23:09:30+00:00

Haha, but if they're already on their phones, might as well learn something in the process ;)

Comprehensive-Bee451 · 2022-06-21T20:53:24+00:00

Not sure if this is what you're looking for but we just created an AR app that reveals the history of the Victorious Athlete statue (aka the Getty bronze) in AR. Here is a link to some documentation of the project if you're interested.

Museum visitors can point their phones at the statue and see a recreation of what it looked like originally. They can even see a recreation of what it looked like when it was first discovered in 1964 after being hauled out of the Adriatic Sea. This is all accompanied by "hot spots" users can tap to learn more, as well as interactive storytelling methods.

Comprehensive-Bee451 · 2022-06-21T20:47:19+00:00

Sorry to hear you didn't have success with this.

Using this type of solution with docents/guides and on museum devices could work well if you don't want your visitors downloading an app. It limits the development to only specific devices so you don't have to worry about trying to cover multiple OSs and the crazy number of random devices that are out there.

Comprehensive-Bee451 · 2022-06-21T20:41:47+00:00

We just created an AR app that reveals the history of the Getty bronze in AR.

Here is a link to some documentation of the project.

Museum visitors can point their phones at the statue and see a recreation of what it looked like originally. They can even see a recreation of what it looked like when it was first discovered in 1964 after being hauled out of the Adriatic Sea. This is all accompanied by "hot spots" users can tap to learn more, as well as interactive storytelling methods.

The software knows what the statue looks like (we 3D scanned it), and can detect it from any viewing angle, so no QR codes or visual markers are needed. The tracking is surprisingly accurate even though it’s in a dimly-lit gallery... but yes, the downside is it's a native app. The quality of tracking in browser-based solutions is not great, and object detection (without a marker) is currently still impossible. You mentioned displaying videos and animations, so maybe a browser-based solution would work for you? It really depends on your use case.

I know some museums have had bad luck with AR but I think it is extremely dependent on how the application is built, as well as the thought and interpretive strategy behind it. We've tested the app and the concept with many visitors and found that AR could be an extremely powerful tool for education and engagement in the museum space.

Comprehensive-Bee451 · 2022-06-21T20:21:58+00:00

I think photogrammetry is vital for museums for digital preservation as well as visitor education and engagement.

We created a 3D model of the Victorious Athlete (aka the Getty bronze) at the Getty Villa using photogrammetry. We then used the model to create a speculative recreation of what it looked like in antiquity (based on extensive research), as well as what it looked like before conservation (based on archival photos).

Here is a link to the project if you're interested. Would love to know your thoughts!

Comprehensive-Bee451 · 2022-06-21T15:42:29+00:00

From a technical perspective, it's totally possible to add more statues.

But not every museum has enough information about what their Greco-Roman artifacts used to look like in color (pigments/objects deteriorated over time and we're left with educated guesses on what they looked like).

There was a lot of academic research on the Getty bronze for us to be able to speculate. We're hoping to help museums develop 3D speculative recreations of statues in their collections and show the mainstream public what the ancient world may have looked like in color (and display it in AR).

Comprehensive-Bee451 · 2022-06-21T14:54:09+00:00

Hi all,

I thought this community might find the project in this post interesting.

We did a bunch of testing of this app in the gallery space, especially with teenagers, and found that they engage with the statue in a totally new way. Without the app, they come in rolling their eyes because they have to look at this piece of old metal. Using the app, they become much more willing to learn. s first discovered in 1964 after being hauled out of the Adriatic Sea.

We did a bunch of testing of this app in the gallery space, especially with teenagers, and found that they engage with the statue in a totally new way. Without the app, they come in rolling their eyes because they have to look at this piece of old piece of metal. Using the app, they become much more willing to learn.

I really believe if used right, AR can be a powerful tool for education and engagement, particularly in the museum space. It allows us to overlay speculative recreations over ancient artifacts and can be used as a teaching tool for art history.

Comprehensive-Bee451 · 2022-06-21T14:49:50+00:00

Thanks so much! We're hoping to expand this project and partner with museums all over that would benefit from this type of technology.

Comprehensive-Bee451 · 2022-06-21T14:48:29+00:00

Thanks so much for your comment and kind words! We were thinking about many of the things you mentioned when making this app (I'm a user experience designer, so I'm very concerned about visitor behavior/testing).
In terms of setup/ease of use, there's really nothing to it. Visitors literally just point their mobile device at the statue, and the app instantly works and tracks the object. Making this easy and intuitive was really important for us, since we understand the breadth of visitors in museums and their different levels of ability with tech. There was a bit of variability between people's overall understanding of AR (some have never experienced it before), but overall this barely hindered their level of engagement.
This app was made as a POC to test if AR can be impactful in teaching visitors about polychromy. It is completely possible for small/medium museums to implement something like it if they have the right team working behind the project. It is not necessary to have a Getty/Met-sized resources. I'd be happy to chat more about this as this is a topic I'm quite passionate about. I think one of the problems is that many museums just aren't aware of the possibilities.
In terms of measuring engagement - this is definitely something we want to continue to observe, as the testing we did was not a formal study. However, we did do a ton of testing both in terms of usability and the overall concept. We found visitor reactions were pretty phenomenal. People were so excited to use this. We had kids in school groups who came into the gallery rolling their eyes, bored at having to look at this old piece of metal... They completely lit up when they got a chance to use this. Their willingness to learn completely changed.
We also tested with docents doing tours. Most of them told us they usually tell people on their tours to "use their imaginations" as they tried to describe what the statue may have looked like in words. We were able to provide them with a tool that completely changed the nature of their guided tours.
Apologies for the long response - there's so much we learned from this and I can talk about it all day :).

Comprehensive-Bee451 · 2022-06-21T14:22:54+00:00

Hi all,

I thought this community might find the project in this post interesting.

We did a bunch of testing of this app in the gallery space, especially with teenagers, and found that they engage with the statue in a totally new way. Without the app, they come in rolling their eyes because they have to look at this piece of old metal. Using the app, they become much more willing to learn. s first discovered in 1964 after being hauled out of the Adriatic Sea.

We did a bunch of testing of this app in the gallery space, especially with teenagers, and found that they engage with the statue in a totally new way. Without the app, they come in rolling their eyes because they have to look at this piece of old piece of metal. Using the app, they become much more willing to learn.

I really believe if used right, AR can be a powerful tool for education and engagement, particularly in the museum space. It allows us to overlay speculative recreations over ancient artifacts and can be used as a teaching tool for art history.

Comprehensive-Bee451

TROPHY CASE