Using holograms to increase interaction in museums

Abstract

Holographic Technology has made huge strides over the past few years. The range of applications is practically endless and we envisage seeing major investments in the coming years. The main aim of this project was to create virtual 3D agents capable of behaving in a believable manner and display them within a real 3D model of a megalithic temple called “Hagar Qim” (http://heritagemalta.org/ museums-sites/hagar-qim-temples/). These holographic humans are not only visually appealing with clear animations but must also behave in a psychologically sound and autonomous manner, meaning that they would be their own beings, not controlled by a user and their actions relate to the context of the world they are situated in. In order to achieve a high degree of autonomy and believability, the holographic humans developed in this work are self-determined with their own reactive plan of actions to organize their Neolithic daily routines, just like our ancestors did. In order to produce such believable behaviour, computational motivation models based on human psychological theories were explored. Each holographic human is also self-aware and adheres to its own biological needs. Furthermore, visitors are able to interact and communicate with the holographic humans via a mobile device. The system was tested by a number of people in order to test the subjective concept of believability of the system as a whole. On the whole we were extremely satisfied with the positive feedback obtained whereby 96% of respondents found the exhibit believable. There was also a 90% agreement that this platform would be suitable in a museum context since it would immerse visitors within this context whilst helping them learn in a fun and interactive way.