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Journal of Cultural Heritage 13 (2012) 326–331

Available online at

www.sciencedirect.com

ase study

eb technologies applied to virtual heritage: An example of an Iberian Artuseum

aría Dolores Robles-Ortega ∗, Francisco R. Feito , Juan J. Jiménez , Rafael J. Seguraepartment of Computer Science, University of Jaén, Paraje Las Lagunillas, s/n 23071 Jaén, Spain

r t i c l e i n f o

rticle history:eceived 7 June 2011ccepted 11 October 2011vailable online 21 November 2011

eywords:ultural heritage

berian art

a b s t r a c t

Nowadays, some virtual museums include 3D room scenes to show the models of its pieces, just like inreal museums. Nevertheless, the generation and maintenance of this kind of scenes is generally difficultand should be done by an expert. For example, any change such as including a new piece or modifyingthe position of an existing fragment usually requires a different design and the creation of a new scene.In this paper we present a case study on the development of a web-based application to automatizethis process. To this end, a database to store both graphic and non-graphic information about the pieces,and some 3D rooms to show them has been created. The designed scenes only contain some pieces of

nteractivityirtual museumirtual realityeb application

furniture to exhibit the fragments, which will be subsequently included. Thus, when a room is loadedin the web page, its associated pieces are obtained through a query in the database and its models aredynamically included in the original scene. Therefore, the position changes or the inclusion of new piecesare not performed in the 3D model, but in the database. Our application makes the transmission of theknowledge to the general public easier because any new discovered piece can be included in a existingmuseum effortlessly.

. Research aims

The process of transmitting the results of archaeologicalesearches to the general public is usually divided into two phases:

) storing the data in a specific program for archaeologists;) spreading the information using a virtual museum.

As these two applications are generally not connected, an extraork should be done in order to transmit the data between them.

n this paper we propose a sole application to carry out these twoteps in an efficient way. We have designed a database to store allhe information related to the pieces, and a website whose contentsre obtained through queries in it. Using our system, any change inhe database will be automatically shown in the portal web. There-ore, our application can be used for both expert and non-expert

eople, which simplifies the process of knowledge transmission.urthermore, the loading time of the page is reduced because onlyhe selected files by the users are downloaded.

∗ Corresponding author.E-mail address: mrobles@ujaen.es (M.D. Robles-Ortega).

296-2074/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.oi:10.1016/j.culher.2011.10.001

© 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

2. Introduction

3D graphics are evidently appealing for cultural heritage com-munication: the possibility of (re)creating environments, buildings,objects, etc., raised great expectations, both with professionalsand end-users [11]. In addition, cultural heritage can benefitfrom high accuracy 3D digital imaging for conservation, studyand restoration of works [5]. For example, virtual reconstruc-tions of real pieces made accessible to scholars and educators animportant part of our history [8] and preserve the delicate his-torical objects from vandalism, looting and natural disasters [1].Therefore, objects, sites and monuments which are crucial to thehistory can be accessible to a wider audience employing computertechnology [4].

Realistic 3D models can be obtained by integration betweenlaser scanning technology and photogrammetry [12]. Neverthe-less, an additional process should be done to include them in avirtual museum. Any change like modifying the position of thepiece requires the creation of a new scene and should be done byan expert person. In this paper we propose a simple approach tocreate and update a virtual museum accessible from a website.

3. Design issues

Due to the large amount of pieces found in archaeologicalresearch, experts need an electronic tool to store their research

M.D. Robles-Ortega et al. / Journal of Cultural Heritage 13 (2012) 326–331 327

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Fig. 1. General s

esults and to access them in a simple way. Though there are someoftware applications which make the management of the dataasier, like the tool described in [9], they are just for archaeologists.s a result of this, transmitting the knowledge to the general public

s usually difficult because an extra work should be done to publishhe information.

We propose an approach to make this process easier: a MySQLatabase to store both graphical and non-graphical informationbout the pieces and a dynamic portal web to spread this informa-ion. The website includes a dynamic 3D scene composed by severalooms in which the 3D model of the pieces will be shown. Theooms are initially empty, and the fragments will be dynamicallyncluded through queries in the database. Associated transforma-ions of 3D models are stored in a different table to allow changinghe location of the pieces. Therefore, if a piece is moved to anotheroom, its 3D file does not have to be modified because the modeloes not contain any location information. In order to facilitate the

ocation of the pieces in the rooms, a set of preset positions haveeen determined. Thanks to the inclusion of the fragments position

n the database instead of in the X3D model, the museum is highlyustomizable. Thus, any non-expert person can change the locationf any piece easily.

Among the different 3D graphical languages, the standard X3Das been chosen because it enables to create realistic and inter-ctive scenes, and users only have to install a plugin to displayhe models (all 3D contents of our Museum have been testedsing BS-Contact plugin). Nevertheless, according to HTML5 spec-

fication, X3D nodes will be directly integrated into DOM content

ithout any plugin. A model to achieve this objective is currently

eing developed [3]. Next, we explain how to create the X3D scenehrough a query in the database described before. (Fig. 1) shows aiagram of the process.

a of the process.

Initially, when a floor is selected (step 1 in the Figure), its X3Dfile is obtained through a query in the database using PHP and thentransferred to the client device (step 2). X3D files use scene graphsfor representing virtual world objects, their shapes, textures andrelations. The hierarchical scene graph is composed of nodes, whichare divided into different fields for additional information storage.

The communication among the nodes in the scene is performedusing a message-passing mechanism by sending events. Sensorsare special types of nodes that generate these events. They are con-nected with the rest of the scene nodes via ROUTE statements. Thereare different ways to generate an event. For example, touch sensorsare activated when clicking on specific scene objects, and proxim-ity sensors generate events when the user enters, leaves or movesin a defined rectangular box.

In our museum, each floor has three rooms and a commonvestibule through which the visitor can move freely. When the usergoes into any room, a proximity sensor node generates an event. Asthis node is connected with a script, an external JavaScript functionis executed in order to query the database to obtain the descriptionof the room and its pieces (steps 3 and 4).

As a JavaScript function is not allowed to access to the databasedue to security reasons, an intermediate mechanism like Ajax[6] and PHP should be utilized (steps 5.8). Ajax (AsynchronousJavaScript and XML) is a group of technologies used on the client-side to create interactive web applications. It can retrieve data fromthe server asynchronously in the background, making possible anincrease in interactive or dynamic interfaces on web pages. In ourapplication, Ajax retrieves the data of the pieces executing PHP

code.

The information of the room is available, it is shown in the leftframe of the web page (step 9), as can be seen in Fig. 2. In particular,a brief description of the room and a list of its pieces divided into

328 M.D. Robles-Ortega et al. / Journal of Cultural Heritage 13 (2012) 326–331

y click

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Fig. 2. Data obtained b

he categories of the database are included. Each piece has an asso-iated checkbox so that, when an user selects it, the X3D model ofhe fragment is dynamically added to the X3D scene graph. Next,e explain all the process.

First, a PHP query is sent to the MySQL database (step 10) in ordero obtain the X3D file path of the selected piece and its associatedransformations. With these data, a valid X3D code using Transformnd Switch nodes is generated. The Transform node is a group-ng node which defines a coordinate system for its children thats relative to its ancestors coordinate system. It can include a geo-

etric 3D transformation consisting of a (possibly) non-uniformcale about an arbitrary point, a rotation about an arbitrary pointnd axis and a translation. In our application, the code for a pieces a Transform node which includes the geometry for the fragmentnd its associated transformations. Regarding the geometry of theiece, it is included using a Switch node, which allows the frag-ent to be displayed or hidden in the scene simply by changing the

alue of whichChoice attribute. This is very useful for our applica-ion given that users can decide which fragments visualize in thecene. Furthermore, piece models should be downloaded only once,ot whenever the user selects them.

After the X3D code of the piece is generated from the databasenformation, the next step is including it in the original scenestep 11). An X3D model can be altered within the client-ide browser window using the Scene Access Interface (SAI)

ing on a specific piece.

(ISO/IEC 19775-2.2:2009). Specifically, we utilize the function crea-teX3DFromString, which parses its argument and turns it into a listof X3D nodes. As soon as the new elements are created, they areincluded in the original scene using the event addChildren. Thanksto the process described above, the X3D code of the pieces can-not be directly accessed by someone who visit the web page. Inorder to execute this code from a website, we use the function setN-odeEventIn, which allows to set the field value of a specified fieldon a specified node.

As commented before, users can also hide the pieces includedpreviously. To this end, the whichChoice attribute of the selectedpiece is set to -1. With regard to the models of the pieces, they canbe created from a real fragment using different techniques such asa three-dimensional scanner, for instance.

4. Visiting the museum

The Internet is an effective medium for history instruction forall learners [10]. For instance, teachers can use digital assets andweb resources for school audiences [2]. In addition, young peo-

ple, accustomed to highly interactive 3D games, can easily acceptsuch form of presentation. This may be a good opportunity for cul-tural heritage institutions to attract more visitors, especially younggenerations of visitors [14].

M.D. Robles-Ortega et al. / Journal of Cultural Heritage 13 (2012) 326–331 329

e of a

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Fig. 3. Museum screenshots. (a): list of pieces; (b): an exampl

For all this reasons, our museum is accessible fromttp://150.214.97.135/X3D/English/indexEngl.htm. We havereated a portal web of an archaeological Museum with theurpose of showing all the pieces to the general public. Mostf its elements like menus, lists of floors and rooms or tables ofragments are dynamically generated when the page is loading.pecifically, PHP has been used to obtain the data through a queryn the database. Therefore, the inclusion of new rooms or floorsn our Museum is straightforward because only the databasehould be modified. Thus, the web code should not be changedy hand because the website will be updated with the rightumber of rooms the next time it loads. Multimedia contents ofost archaeological museums websites include description of

he pieces, photographs, maps and videos. In order to increasehe interactivity, new contents are needed like, for instance, 3D

odels. These new elements allow users to walk in the virtualcene, select pieces, rotate them, make zoom or even touch them.

From the portal, visitors can directly access to the X3D models

f the pieces and obtain additional information about them. Tohis end, they should select the Piece option in the Visit menu andhoose a way to find it: from origin or from name. In both cases, aist of pieces is shown, like in Fig. 3a. Users can also select a floor or

Fig. 4. Museum evaluation. (a): Results of the answer question; (b): Ev

room; (c): an example of a room; (d): a perspective of a floor.

a room and navigate through its X3D model. Fig. 3b–d shows somescreenshots of our virtual museum. As stated in the previous sec-tion, when users enter a room, information about its pieces is shownin the left frame (see Fig. 2). Visitors can then select the fragmentsthey want to see in the room (step 1 in Figure). In order to obtainmore information about the pieces in the scene, they only shouldclick on them (step 2). Next, a brief description of the fragment, itsX3D model and its associated images appear bellow.

We have included a sufficient set of sample pieces to show thepotential characteristics of the museum. In future work, we wantto include real data and models.

Our prototype is similar to another systems which create virtualexhibitions like, for instance, ARCO (Augmented Representationof Cultural Objects, http://www.wirtualnemuzea.pl/en/node/949).This project aims at developing technology to help museums tocreate, manipulate, manage and present digitized cultural objectsin virtual exhibitions accessible both inside and outside museums[19]. It is composed of three main architectural components: con-

tent production, management and visualization [17,18]. It has beenimplemented using non open source technologies, like the X-VRapproach, which consists of a database model for VR, called X-VRDB [16], and a modeling language, X-VRML[13] to add dynamic

olution of the data transmission during a visit on the portal web.

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30 M.D. Robles-Ortega et al. / Journal

odeling capabilities to the content description standards suchs VRML/X3D. Finally, the behavior modeling of dynamic virtualeality contents is performed using Beh-VR approach [14,15]. Theain difference between ARCO and our system is that our museum

as been created using only open source technologies.

. Results

Like the ease or difficulty that users experience with these webpplications determines their success or failure [7], we have done atudy to know the user experience using our application. A group of5 people have answered a question paper about it in which eacheature could be ranked from 0 to 5. The results are summarized inig. 4a. As shown in graph, interactivity and realism are two valuedeatures. They both have an overage of 4. With regard to familiar-ty and ease of use, they have a score of 3.9 and 3.8 respectively.hese values show that using our application is not difficult forost people. In relation to the delay time, the results indicate that

he load time of the web page is reduced. As for the informationnd usefulness of our Museum, the score is good as well: the firstas an overage of 4.2 and the second an overage of 4.1. In view ofhese results most people in the survey group think they obtainnough data of the website. Finally, usefulness for education is theost valued feature with an overage of 4.8. Therefore, according to

hese results, our Museum could be used as an educational tool inchools.

Some tests have been realized in order to measure the per-ormance of the website using Apache JMeter (http://jakarta.pache.org/jmeter/, accessed June 2011). Fig. 4b shows the evo-ution of the data transmission during a visit on the portal web.s can be observed, the amount of data that is transmitted is notery high except when the pieces are downloaded. Evidently, if theieces were downloaded at the first instead of on demand, the traf-c network would be higher. In our example, the throughput is 3.4equests per second or 30.44 Kb/sec.

. Conclusions and future work

In this paper, we have presented a prototype to make the trans-ission of the results of archaeological researches easier and more

afely to the general public. In particular, we have created a Vir-ual Museum of Iberian Art. We have designed a database whichtores all data obtained by the archaeologists, and a dynamic web-ite in order to show all these data. As the portal web obtains thenformation through queries in the database, publishing new dataoes not require any additional work. It is an interactive museumince users can choose which rooms and floors want to visit, turnhe camera, make zoom, select the fragments and obtain additionalnformation of the pieces simply by clicking on them.

The process to communicate X3D and the database in both direc-ions has been described. It was found that web technologies coulde combined with client side ECMAScript to display the most rele-ant information obtained through queries in the database.

As only the selected pieces are displayed, the load time of theuseum is reduced. Thanks to the use of the Switch node, they are

ownloaded only once so the network traffic is also lower.In order to make the maintenance of the website and the

atabase easier, a set of preset positions to put the fragments in piece of furniture have been determined. Therefore, including aew piece in any room or moving it to another location is a simpleask. Thus, the methodology described in this paper could be used

n many fields other than archeology like, for example, sculptural

useums.As future work a recommendation system could be created

sing intelligent agents to define the visitor profile and help users

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tural Heritage 13 (2012) 326–331

to know which room or pieces are more important for them. Forexample, whereas most relevant pieces could be accessible fornon-expert users, archaeologists could access to the rest of the frag-ments. Definitely, the web site should adapt to the needs of thevisitors.

We want to create an interactive tool in order to locate the piecesof furniture in each room as well. Thus, pieces of furniture wouldalso be customizable and designers could change the appearanceof each room. To include this new functionality, the position ofeach piece of furniture should be stored in the database in a dif-ferent table, as the fragment location. Therefore, the rooms wouldbe initially empty without any pieces of furniture or fragments, andtheir content would be dynamically added through queries in therepository.

Visualizing high-resolution models is another interesting topicto be studied. Some techniques could be used to improve the per-formance such as the levels of details (LODs). As we have developeda web repository (http://trantor.ujaen.es/∼gigjaen/vrr/, accessedJune 2011) which manages LOD objects, in the next version ofthe website we want to link both projects. Thus, our museumwill manage objects at different level of details and visitors willbe able to use more refined search criteria to obtain the requireddata.

Acknowledgements

This work has been partially supported by the Consejeríade Innovación, Ciencia y Empresa of the Junta de Andalucíaand the European Union (via ERDF funds) through the researchproject P07-TIC-02773, by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovaciónand the European Union (via ERDF funds) through the researchproject TIN2011-25259 and by the University of Jaén throughthe research project UJA2010/13/08 sponsored by Caja Rural deJaén.

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