Virtual reality and museums are a perfect pair. We’ve seen plenty of institutions, like the British Museum, dabble in VR over the past few years. But for the most part, the offerings have been fairly basic. The Smithsonian American Art Museum is hoping to go one step further. It teamed up with Intel to develop an experience that takes advantage of room-scale VR’s immersiveness to let anyone visit its exhibits from anywhere. While it’s only a basic demo at the moment, with just a few rooms and three interactive showpieces, it’s an example of how museums can use virtual reality to transform their relationship with the public.
The Smithsonian and Intel worked with several VR studios, includingV.A.L.I.S., Framestore, xRez and 8i, to recreate one wing of the renowned art museum. Using a combination of laser scanning and photogrammetry (creating 3D models from 2D photographs), they reconstructed the space for VR exploration. Framestore handled the interactivity side of things while Intel provided a powerful Xeon-equipped rig to construct the demo.
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Source: Engadget