The Virtual House of Medusa (VHM) is a supervised, seated virtual-reality (VR) installation, including one VR player and up to four fellow co-players. By putting on a head-mounted display (HMD), the visitor enters the installation and can switch between the four virtual stations via gaze interaction. Using a VR controller, the player can interact with the virtual world and grab digitized fragments of the fresco to slip into the role of the restorer. An additional perspective is provided by a public display that allows spectators to watch the virtual experience.
A majority of VR installations are designed as single-user experiences, and do not typically facilitate communication or interaction between multiple participants. In contrast, the VHM is constructed as a cooperative VR Experience between the VR player and the audience. Audience members have the ability to interact directly with the VR player and control their own individual point of view of the virtual world. Using tablets combined with positional trackers, the co-players can look into the VR world, and via touch-based interaction, give the VR player hints. This allows co-players to move freely in the physical, tracked space and view the VR world from any direction, regardless of the perspective of the VR player.
Credits:
Team:
Andrea Aschauer, Jürgen Hagler, Markus Santner, Michael Lankes, Wolfgang Hochleitner, Georgi Kostov
Project Partners:
Federal Monuments Authority Austria, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien
