Introduction

Do you want to enjoy the museum without leaving your house? Do you think traditional museums are too boring? As long as you wear a VR headset, you can "walk" around any corner of the museum. In addition, you can go up and pick up the items in front of you and carefully observe and study them without worrying about damaging the artefacts. You can even teleport and change the color of the vase. It doesn't even matter if you break the vase.

Application Description

According to Fuchs and Philippe, the purpose of virtual reality is to create a possible sensory and cognitive activity for a person (or persons) in a digitally created artificial world, which can be imaginary, symbolic, or a simulation of certain aspects of the real world. So it is possible that we can create an oasis through virtual reality, to create a wonderland?  I think this application did that.

Especially in the past few years of the epidemic, many people are either under quarantine or on the way to quarantine. There is no chance for them to go to the museum. The isolation could last seven or fourteen days at a time, and the confinement of a man in his room could be tedious. At this time, if he can get the VR headset and this program, he can happily roam the virtual museum. In addition, in traditional museums, we are not allowed to touch cultural relics in many cases, and sometimes we even have to observe them through glass. Just think about that: We spent a long time travelling to the museum, queuing up to buy tickets only to have a look at the collection from a distance. How boring! At this moment, VR technology can help people get rid of long-time travel so that people are not limited by time and place. Enjoy immersive experiences anytime, anywhere.

In this application, people can also do things that they can't do in real life. For example, people can teleport at will and change the colour of a vase by touching it. This type of interaction can lead to new and interesting experiences for users. With its authentic experience, users may move, interact, and live as if they were in a real area (Karagiannis et al. 2021).

Interaction Design

VR interaction gives users a more realistic experience. There are four main modes of interaction in this application. The first is Avatar teleportation, which allows the user to move as quickly as necessary. The second is to touch the vase to make it change colour, which brings a novel experience to the user. The third is that the user can grasp objects, which makes the user feel more manipulative and experiential. The fourth is to break a vase.

Storyboard to illustrate the use case of the interface technology and the interactions in the application.

Technical Development

The application was developed in Unity 3D and used the Oculus Quest 2 VR headset. All assets in this application are from the Unity Asset Store. The application uses four types of interaction to give users an immersive experience. The first is that when the user presses the Index Trigger button on the left controller, the user can see a teleportation arrow.  Secondly, users can also change the colour of the vase by touching it with the button on the controllers.  For the last interaction, users can pick up objects and break vases.

Model Description

Art Gallery Museum

The museum was downloaded from the Unity Asset Store as the main scene in this project. The museum looks very realistic and beautiful to bring better visual enjoyment to users.

Weapon

The user can pick up the weapon and use it to break the vase.

Vase1

This vase has a grab function from OculusControler. The user can choose to pick up the vase and observe its pattern, or knock it over with a weapon, but the vase is not capable of breaking (it does not break when knocked over by the weapon).

Vase2

When the weapon touches this vase, this vase will break.

Vase3

When the user touches the vase, it changes from orange to red. Touch it again and the vase will turn red again.

Reference

Fuchs, Philippe. Virtual Reality Headsets-a Theoretical and Pragmatic Approach, Taylor & Francis Group, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.utas.edu.au/lib/utas/detail.action?docID=4812394.

Karagiannis, P, Togias, T, Michalos, G & Makris, S 2021, 'Operators' Training Using Simulation And VR Technology’, Procedia CIRP, vol. 96, pp. 290–294.

Art gallery museum https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/art-gallery-museum-188756

Vase Egypt Free https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/props/vase-egypt-free-149689

LOWPOLY - Weapon Pack https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/props/weapons/lowpoly-weapon-pack-21648...

FREE Floral Gold Jar https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/props/interior/free-floral-gold-jar-188...

Script https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_v9JnTDCCY&t=60s