Structure, function and development of segmental organs in Annelida

Abstract

New technologies for innovative interactive experience represent a powerful medium to deliver cultural heritage content to a wider range of users. Among them, Natural User Interfaces (NUI), i.e. non-intrusive technologies not requiring to the user to wear devices nor use external hardware (e.g. keys or trackballs), are considered a promising way to broader the audience of specific cultural heritage domains, like the navigation/interaction with digital artworks presented on wall-sized displays. Starting from a collaboration with a worldwide famous Italian designer, we defined a NUI to explore 360 panoramic artworks presented on wall-sized displays, like virtual reconstruction of ancient cultural sites, or rendering of imaginary places. Specifically, we let the user to "move the head" as way of natural interaction to explore and navigate through these large digital artworks. To this aim, we developed a system including a remote head pose estimator to catch movements of users standing in front of the wall-sized display: starting from a central comfort zone, as users move their head in any direction, the virtual camera rotates accordingly. With NUIs, it is difficult to get feedbacks from the users about the interest for the point of the artwork he/she is looking at. To solve this issue, we complemented the gaze estimator with a preliminary emotional analysis solution, able to implicitly infer the interest of the user for the shown content from his/her pupil size. A sample of 150 subjects was invited to experience the proposed interface at an International Design Week. Preliminary results show that the most of the subjects were able to properly interact with the system from the very first use, and that the emotional module is an interesting solution, even if further work must be devoted to address specific situations. © 2016 for this paper by its authors. Copying permitted for private and academic purposes.