Culture and local heritage
Casa Borgese
Casa Borgese, Polizzi Generosa: in the writer's house museum, a journey in augmented and virtual reality inside the books of Giuseppe Antonio Borgese.
Summary
A journey inside the books of Giuseppe Antonio Borgese.
Casa Borgese is the memorial museum that the Fondazione Borgese creates from the house and study of Giuseppe Antonio Borgese, the writer from Polizzi Generosa. Inside it, an augmented and virtual reality installation on Meta Quest 3S takes the visitor into the author's books: seated on a sofa with the headset, they find a small table with some of the author's books, such as Fondamenti della Repubblica Mondiale (Foundations of the World Republic) and Rubè, pick them up and, opening them with their hands, they step into the book, into a scene that tells its content with period photographs, videos and objects, up to a short 3D scene of a historical episode linked to the book.
Problem
Making Borgese known and bringing new visitors to his house.
The Fondazione Borgese wants to make the author known and attract new visitors by turning his house and study in Polizzi Generosa into a memorial museum. Virtual and augmented reality technologies serve this purpose: making the visit a modern, interactive experience.
Approach
From the sofa into the book: augmented reality first, virtual reality next.
The experience starts from the real room. The visitor is seated on a sofa, the headset is in augmented reality mode and a small table with some books appears in front of them, which they can pick up with hand gestures. Grabbing a book with both hands to open it is the gesture to enter it: the room gives way to an immersive scene, with a commentary on the content of the book and a sequence of historical photographs, videos and other objects linked to the text. While listening, the visitor can grab the media and the objects to look at them more closely.
System
Books to open, scenes to walk through.
Every book, from Fondamenti della Repubblica Mondiale to Rubè, has its own scene: the commentary, the historical materials to pick up and a short, fully 3D scene of a historical episode linked to the book, such as a reconstruction of the bombing of Hiroshima or Italian soldiers assaulting a trench in the First World War. The historical photographs and film footage that make up the scenes are provided by foundations and museums, including the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, under permissions obtained by the client. The passage between the augmented reality of the sofa and the virtual reality of the scenes happens inside the same application, on Meta Quest 3S. Casa Borgese is a project of its own, separate from the Museo Virtuale Polizzi Generosa.
Results
The appeal of stepping into a book.
An innovation that lets Borgese's books be experienced in all their depth, with superior audio quality: from the sofa of the house museum, visitors step into the pages, among period photographs and footage to pick up and historical scenes rebuilt in 3D.
Technology
Unreal Engine on Meta Quest 3S, in augmented and virtual reality.
The application is developed in Unreal Engine and runs standalone on Meta Quest 3S, with no computer attached. The headset works in augmented reality mode, with the real room visible, for the sofa, the table and the books, and switches to virtual reality for the scenes inside the books; interactions rely on hand gesture recognition. The 3D models and textures are made with Blender and with Substance Designer and Painter.
Reuse
A dynamic, adaptable museum.
The technologies behind this installation can be adapted and reused to build other museums, whatever their content. Whether books and documents, photographs and footage, 3D models or entire reconstructed historical scenes, the installation lends itself to the most varied requests.
CTA
Do you have a story, a house or a figure to tell in virtual or augmented reality?
Tell us what you want people to experience and who they are: we design the experience together, from the content to the devices it is visited on.
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