Current Trends on the Acquisition, Virtual Representation, and Interaction of Cultural Heritage

Abstract

Cultural heritage (CH) tells us about our roots, and therefore, constitutes a rich value for the society. Its conservation, dissemination, and understanding are of utmost importance. In order to preserve CH for the upcoming generations, it needs to be documented, a process that nowadays is done digitally. Current trends involve a set of technologies (cameras, scanners, etc.) for the shape and radiometric acquisition of assets. Also, intangible CH can be digitally documented in a variety of forms. Having such assets virtualized, a proper dissemination channel is of relevance, and recently, new technologies that make use of interaction paradigms have emerged. Among them, in this chapter, the authors focus their attention in the technologies of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and serious games (SGs). They aim to explore these technologies in order to show their benefits in the dissemination and understanding of CH. Though the work involving them is not trivial, and usually a multidisciplinary team is required, the benefits for CH make them worth it.