Georgios Tsoumanis, PhD CandidateIonian University, Corfu, Greecegtsoum@greenlab.di.ionio.grandEleni Kavvadia, Konstantinos Oikonomou{ekavvadia,okon}@ionio.gr

Chania, Greece, 7-9 July 2014

Changing the Look of a City:

The v-Corfu Case

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.”

Outline

• Idea

• Definitions

• Corfu cultural heritage examples

• Implementing v-Corfu

• Constructing v-Corfu

• Enhancing v-Corfu

• Experiencing v-Corfu

• Educational aspects

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.

v-definitions

• v-Corfu

– v-sites

– Avatars

• Roaming• Educative

• v-tours

– Projected on the real sites during a visit

Corfu cultural heritage examples

• Sites

Achilion New Fort Mon Repo Palaiopoli

• Historical persons

Implementing v-Corfu (1)

v-sites

Implementing v-Corfu (1)

v-sites

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

Implementing v-Corfu (2)

avatars

•Avatars–Roaming avatars

•Used to increase realism

–Educative avatars

•Have a role in educative purposes

Implementing v-Corfu (2)

avatars

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.

Constructing v-Corfu (2)

materials and software

• Primary materials– Photos

– Building designs

• Software– GIMP

– Autodesk 3d Studio Max

– Reallusion iClone

– Unity 3d engine

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

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.

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.

Summary

• Virtual Corfu (v-Corfu)

– Virtual sites (v-sites)

– Avatars

•Roaming

•Educative

Virtual assistants

(v-assistants)

Virtual tours (v-tours)

Future work

• Educative avatars' voice

• 2d avatars

• Artificial intelligence

• All visitors will contribute to future work

Thank you for your attention!