Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Virtual dives into the underwater archaeological treasures of South Italy

  • S.I. : VR and AR Serious Games
  • Published:
Virtual Reality Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The paper presents a virtual diving system based on a virtual reality (VR) application for the exploitation of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. The virtual diving experience has been designed to entertain users, but its added pedagogical value is explicitly emphasized too. In fact, the ludic activities, consisting in the simulation of a real diving session from the point of view of a scuba diver, are following a storyline described by a virtual diving companion who guides users during the exploration of the underwater archaeological site. The virtual diving system provides general and historical-cultural contents, but also information about the flora and fauna of the specific submerged site to the users. The results collected through user studies demonstrate that the proposed VR system is able to provide a playful learning experience, with a high emotional impact, and it has been well appreciated by a large variety of audiences, even by younger and inexperienced users.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Addison AC (2001) Virtual heritage: technology in the service of culture. In: Proceedings of the 2001 conference on Virtual reality, archeology, and cultural heritage, pp 343–354. ACM

  • Anderson EF, McLoughlin L, Liarokapis F, Peters C, Petridis P, De Freitas S (2010) Developing serious games for cultural heritage: a state-of-the-art review. Virtual Real 14(4):255–275

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barbieri L, Bruno F, Muzzupappa M (2017) Virtual museum system evaluation through user studies. J Cult Herit. doi:10.1016/j.culher.2017.02.005

    Google Scholar 

  • Barcelo M, Forte DH (2000) Virtual reality in archaeology. In: Sanders DH (ed) BAR International Series 843. Archeopress, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Bellotti F, Berta R, De Gloria A, D’ursi A, Fiore V (2012) A serious game model for cultural heritage. J Comput Cult Herit (JOCCH) 5(4):17

    Google Scholar 

  • Berlyne DE (1970) Novelty, complexity, and hedonic value. Atten Percept Psychophys 8(5):279–286

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blue Growth Study (2013) Study in support of policy measures for maritime and coastal tourism at EU level. Specific contract under FWC MARE/2012/06–SC D1/2013/01-SI2.648530. Rotterdam/Brussels, 15 Sept 2013

  • Borsci S, Macredie RD, Barnett J, Martin J, Kuljis J, Young T (2013) Reviewing and extending the five-user assumption: a grounded procedure for interaction evaluation. ACM Trans Comput Hum Interact (TOCHI) 20(5):29

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bruno F, Bruno S, De Sensi G, Luchi ML, Mancuso S, Muzzupappa M (2010) From 3D reconstruction to virtual reality: a complete methodology for digital archaeological exhibition. J Cult Herit 11(1):42–49. doi:10.1016/j.culher.2009.02.006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bruno F, Lagudi A, Muzzupappa M, Lupia M, Cario G, Barbieri L, Passaro S, Saggiomo R (2016a) Project VISAS—Virtual and augmented exploitation of Submerged Archaeological Sites: overview and first results. Mar Technol Soc J (MTS) 50(4):119–129. doi:10.4031/MTSJ.50.4.4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bruno F, Lagudi A, Barbieri L, Muzzupappa M, Ritacco G, Cozza A, Cozza M, Peluso R, Lupia M, Cario G (2016) Virtual and augmented reality tools to improve the exploitation of underwater archaeological sites by diver and non-diver tourists. Digital heritage. Progress in cultural heritage: documentation, preservation, and protection. In: 6th International conference, EuroMed 2016, Nicosia, Cyprus, Proceedings, Part I, vol 10058 pp 269–280. 2016. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-48496-9_22

  • Chapman P, Conte G, Drap P, Gambogi P, Gauch F, Hanke K, Richards J (2006) Venus, virtual exploration of underwater sites. In: Proceeding of joint event CIPA/VAST/EG/Euro-Med

  • Chapman P, Roussel D, Drap P, Haydar M (2008) Virtual exploration of underwater archaeological sites. Visualization and interaction in mixed reality environments. In: Ashley KR-EM, Hermon S, Proenca A (eds) Proceedings of VAST: International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Intelligent Cultural Heritage. pp 141–148. doi:10.2312/VAST/VAST08/141-148

  • Coenen T, Mostmans L, Naessens K (2013) MuseUs: case study of a pervasive cultural heritage serious game. J Comput Cult Herit (JOCCH) 6(2):8

    Google Scholar 

  • De Paolis LT, Aloisio G, Celentano MG, Oliva L, Vecchio P (2011) Mediaevo project: a serious game for the edutainment. In: 2011 3rd International conference on computer research and development (ICCRD), vol 4, pp 524–529. IEEE

  • Djaouti D, Alvarez J, Rampnoux O, Charvillat V, Jessel JP (2009) Serious games and cultural heritage: a case study of prehistoric caves. In: 15th International conference on virtual systems and multimedia, 2009. VSMM’09, pp 221–226. IEEE

  • Dumas J, Sorce J, Virzi R (1995) Expert reviews: how many experts is enough? In: Proceedings of the human factors and ergonomics society 39th annual meeting HFES, pp 309–312. doi:10.1177/154193129503900402

  • Ernst MO, Banks MS (2002) Humans integrate visual and haptic information in a statistically optimal fashion. Nature 415(6870):429–433

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ESA (2016) 2016 Sales, demographic and usage data—essential facts about the computer and video game industry. Entertainment Software Association, Washington, D.C., p 3

    Google Scholar 

  • EU Commission (2014) European commission directorate general for maritime Affairs and fisheries, A European strategy for more growth and jobs in coastal and maritime tourism, communication from the commission to the European parliament, the council, the European and economic and social committee and the committee of the regions, 20/02/2014

  • Haydar M, Roussel D, Maïdi M, Otmane S, Mallem M (2011) Virtual and augmented reality for cultural computing and heritage: a case study of virtual exploration of underwater archaeological site. Virtual Real 15(4):311–327. doi:10.1007/s10055-010-0176-4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huang WHY, Soman D (2013) A Practitioner’s Guide to Gamification of Education. Behavioural Economics in Action Report Series, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto

  • Hunter JW (2009) Underwater archaeology: the NAS guide to principles and practice. Australas Hist Archaeol 27:127

    Google Scholar 

  • ISO 13407 (1999) Human-centred design processes for interactive systems

  • Jacobson J, Handron K, Holden L (2009) Narrative and content combine in a learning game for virtual heritage. Distance Educ 9(2):7–26

    Google Scholar 

  • Kapp KM (2012) The gamification of learning and instruction: game-based methods and strategies for training and education. Pfeiffer, San Francisco, CA

    Google Scholar 

  • Katsouri I, Tzanavari A, Herakleous K, Poullis C (2015) Visualizing and assessing hypotheses for marine archaeology in a VR CAVE environment. J Comput Cult Herit (JOCCH) 8(2):10. doi:10.1145/2665072

    Google Scholar 

  • Lagudi A, Bianco G, Muzzupappa M, Bruno F (2016) An alignment method for the integration of underwater 3D data captured by a stereovision system and an acoustic camera. Sensors 16(4):536. doi:10.3390/s16040536

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lepouras G, Vassilakis C (2005) Virtual museums for all: employing game technology for edutainment. Virtual Real 8:96–106. doi:10.1007/s10055-004-0141-1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewis JR (1994) Sample sizes for usability studies: additional considerations. Hum Factors 36:368–378

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewis JR (2006) Usability testing. In: Salvendy G (ed) Handbook of human factors and ergonomics. Wiley, New York, pp 1275–1316

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Liarokapis F, Kouřil P, Agrafiotis P, Demesticha S, Chmelík J, Skarlatos D (2017) 3D modelling and mapping for virtual exploitation of underwater archaeology assets. Int Arch Photogramm Remote Sens Spat Inf Sci XLII-2/W3:425–431

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morschheuser B, Werder K, Hamari J, Abe J (2017) How to gamify? Development of a method for gamification. In: Proceedings of the 50th annual Hawaii international conference on system sciences (HICSS), pp 4–7

  • Mortara M, Catalano CE, Bellotti F, Fiucci G, Houry-Panchetti M, Petridis P (2014) Learning cultural heritage by serious games. J Cult Herit 15(3):318–325

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pavlidis G, Koutsoudis A, Arnaoutoglou F, Tsioukas V, Chamzas C (2007) Methods for 3D digitization of cultural heritage. J Cult Herit 8(1):93–98. doi:10.1016/j.culher.2006.10.007

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rock I, Victor J (1964) Vision and touch: an experimentally created conflict between the two senses. Science 143(3606):594–596

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roussou M (2002) Virtual heritage: from the research lab to the broad public. Bar Int Ser 1075:93–100

    Google Scholar 

  • Sauro J, Lewis JR (2016) Quantifying the user experience: practical statistics for user research. Morgan Kaufmann published by Elsevier Inc, Burlington. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-802308-2.00001-1

    Google Scholar 

  • Shaffer DW, Squire KR, Halverson R, Gee JP (2005) Video games and the future of learning. Phi delta kappan 87(2):105–111

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Silvia PJ (2006) Exploring the psychology of interest. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Simon N (2010) The participatory museum. Museum 2.0 Santa Cruz, California. ISBN-13:978-0-615-34650-2

  • Spence C, Nicholls ME, Driver J (2001) The cost of expecting events in the wrong sensory modality. Percept Psychophys 63(2):330–336

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stone RJ (1999) Virtual heritage: the willing suspension of disbelief for the moment. World Heritage Review. UNESCO, Madrid, pp 18–27

    Google Scholar 

  • Stone R, White D, Guest R, Francis B (2009) The virtual scylla: an exploration of “serious games”, artificial life and simulation complexity. Virtual Real 13(1):13–25

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner CW, Lewis JR, Nielsen J (2006) Determining usability test sample size. Int encycl ergon hum factors 3:3084–3088. doi:10.1201/9780849375477.ch597

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Dam A, Laidlaw DH, Simpson RM (2002) Experiments in immersive virtual reality for scientific visualization. Comput Graph 26(4):535–555

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vansteenkiste M, Lens W, Deci EL (2006) Intrinsic versus extrinsic goal contents in self-determination theory: another look at the quality of academic motivation. Educ Psychol 41(1):19–31

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Varinlioğlu G (2011) Data collection for a virtual museum on the underwater survey at kaş, Turkey. Int J Naut Archaeol 40(1):182–188. doi:10.1111/j.1095-9270.2010.00304.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vote E, Feliz DA, Laidlaw DH, Joukowsky MS (2002) Discovering petra: archaeological analysis in VR. IEEE Comput Graph Appl 22(5):38–50. doi:10.1109/MCG.2002.1028725

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wei T, Li Y (2010) Design of educational game: a literature review. Transactions on edutainment IV. Springer, Berlin, pp 266–276

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Williams DF, Keay SJ (2005) Roman Amphorae: a digital resource. Archaeol Data Serv. doi:10.5284/1000021

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The VISAS project (Ref. Start-Up PAC02L2-00040) has been financed by the MIUR under the PAC Programme. The authors would like to thank the Marine Protected Area of Capo Rizzuto, the Soprintendenza per i Beni culturali e ambientali del Mare della Sicilia for the permission to conduct the experimentation in the sites of Cala Minnola and the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Calabria for the site of Punta Scifo.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical, Energy and Industrial Engineering (DIMEG) University of Calabria, P. Bucci, 46C, 87036, Rende, CS, Italy

    Fabio Bruno, Loris Barbieri, Antonio Lagudi & Maurizio Muzzupappa

  2. 3D Research Srl, P. Bucci, 45C, 87036, Rende, CS, Italy

    Marco Cozza, Alessandro Cozza & Raffaele Peluso

Authors
  1. Fabio Bruno
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Loris Barbieri
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Antonio Lagudi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Marco Cozza
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Alessandro Cozza
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Raffaele Peluso
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Maurizio Muzzupappa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fabio Bruno.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bruno, F., Barbieri, L., Lagudi, A. et al. Virtual dives into the underwater archaeological treasures of South Italy. Virtual Reality 22, 91–102 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-017-0318-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-017-0318-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation