Changing the Look of a City: The v-Corfu Case (IISA 2014 presentation). Using 3d state of the art techniques for educative purposes.

1. Georgios Tsoumanis, PhD Candidate
Ionian University, Corfu, Greece
gtsoum@greenlab.di.ionio.gr
and
Eleni Kavvadia, Konstantinos Oikonomou
{ekavvadia,okon}@ionio.gr
Chania, Greece, 7-9 July 2014
Changing the Look of a City:
The v-Corfu Case

2. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was supported in part by project “Buildings, Culture and
Environment in a Virtual World of the Ionian Islands for Touristic
Promotion,” which is partially funded by European and National Greek
Funds (ESPA) under the Regional Operational Programme “Western
Greece – Peloponnese - Ionian Islands 2007-2013.”

3. Outline
• Idea
• Definitions
• Corfu cultural heritage examples
• Implementing v-Corfu
• Constructing v-Corfu
• Enhancing v-Corfu
• Experiencing v-Corfu
• Educational aspects

4. Idea
• Plethora of sites in Corfu, which are related with the
history and culture of many different civilizations.
+
• 3d “rebuilt” of historical sites and 3d “reborn” of
important persons.
=
• Result! Enhance teaching history through a playful way.

5. v-definitions
• v-Corfu
– v-sites
– Avatars
• Roaming
• Educative
• v-tours
– Projected on the real sites during a visit

6. Corfu cultural heritage examples
• Sites
Achilion New Fort Mon Repo Palaiopoli
• Historical persons

7. Implementing v-Corfu (1)
v-sites

8. Implementing v-Corfu (1)
v-sites

9. Implementing v-Corfu (1)
v-sites
Category Materials needed Adjustments
Existing sites in good condition Photos of today, arch. designs,
videos
Small
Existing sites in bad condition Photos of today, photos of the
past, arch. designs, videos
Big
Non-existing sites Photos of the past and every
material can be founded
Complete 3d reconstruction
Non-visitable sites Material of today outdoors,
material of the past indoors
Outdoor adjustments, indoor
complete 3d reconstruction

10. Implementing v-Corfu (2)
avatars
•Avatars
–Roaming avatars
•Used to increase realism
–Educative avatars
•Have a role in educative purposes

11. Implementing v-Corfu (2)
avatars

12. Constructing v-Corfu (1)
workflow
• The entire process is divided into 5 different tasks:
– Collect all items needed to construct the v-sites (photos, videos,
buildings’ designs).
– Create the v-sites and other objects, added to the virtual world (e.g.
terrains, buildings).
– Construct the avatars, along with their animations and v-assistants if
needed.
– Integrate the outcome of the previous tasks in order to create v-Corfu.
– v-Tours are created, using v-Corfu.

13. Constructing v-Corfu (2)
materials and software
• Primary materials
– Photos
– Building designs
• Software
– GIMP
– Autodesk 3d Studio Max
– Reallusion iClone
– Unity 3d engine

14. Enhancing v-Corfu:
v-assistants
• V-assistants are properties, which are held by some v-
sites or educative avatars, in order to be useful during the
educative process
.
–Related to v-sites
•Pop – up notes
–Related to educative avatars
•Animations
–Talk through subtitles
–Move

15. Experiencing v-Corfu:
v-tours
• v-tours
– The v-tour for every site is created as a movie, in order to be projected in one of
the site’s places.
– v-Sites, avatars and educative avatars are participating in v-tours.
– Best watched outdoors and after the sunset.

16. Educational aspects
• Expand the knowledge about the city’s historical and cultural
heritage.
– Target group
•Individuals with cultural and historical interests.
•Students
–Cooperation between the v-Corfu team and teachers is intended
in order to create an educative plan.

17. Summary
• Virtual Corfu (v-Corfu)
– Virtual sites (v-sites)
– Avatars
•Roaming
•Educative
Virtual assistants
(v-assistants)
Virtual tours (v-tours)

18. Future work
• Educative avatars' voice
• 2d avatars
• Artificial intelligence
• All visitors will contribute to future work

19. Thank you for your attention!