- Title: HoloLens to help improve museum experience
- Date: 24th October 2016
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) ANNELIES MALTHA, TU DELFT RESEARCHER, SAYING: "Right now, 80 percent of the stuff that they have at the museum they cannot show, and that's a shame because there are so many beautiful artefacts and there are so many hidden secrets, so to speak, of the past that people cannot see. So by using the HoloLens people can virtually visit the exhibit and see so much more."
- Embargoed: 8th November 2016 15:42
- Keywords: Microsoft HoloLens augmented reality Rijksmuseum Van Oudheden TU Delft
- Location: DELFT / LEIDEN, NETHERLANDS
- City: DELFT / LEIDEN, NETHERLANDS
- Country: Netherlands
- Topics: Science
- Reuters ID: LVA00455I3MU3
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:The Rijksmuseum Van Oudheden in the Dutch city of Leiden is the latest museum to look toward augmented reality (AR) as a way of encouraging younger visitors through its doors.
The Rijksmuseum is the national archaeological museum of the Netherlands, and its attractions focus on historical eras like ancient Egypt, classical Greece, and Rome.
Due to space considerations, most exhibits are not available to visitors, but the museum wants to change that.
It asked researchers from Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) to devise an augmented reality experience for visitors, allowing them access to previously unseen exhibits inside the ancient Egyptian Temple of Taffeh, which was reconstructed inside the Rijksmuseum in 1971.
Supervised by Dr Jouke Verlinden, of TU Delft's Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, the team is using Microsoft's new AR system, the HoloLens, to scan each room of the temple.
"We're going to go to the temple and scan it, scan the room, and environment inside the temple, outside, everything - and then we can get these 3D model through different software we can replicate this in the computer and then add on features such as images, movies, illustrations, animations, as well as features where you can press, scale, get closer, interact with, and all that," said researcher Erik Hoglund.
Fellow researcher Annelies Maltha says the HoloLens is the perfect tool to enhance visitor enjoyment of the temple.
She told Reuters: "The HoloLens enables you to have an augmented reality, instead of a virtual reality, which means you can still see the temple, you can still feel the ancient vibe around you, so to speak. It doesn't shut you off from the outside world, and it just has a lot of opportunities and possibilities for you to interact with your surroundings instead of cutting you off completely."
Maltha added: "Right now 80 percent of the stuff that they have at the museum they cannot show, and that's a shame because there are so many beautiful artefacts and there are so many hidden secrets, so to speak, of the past that people cannot see. So by using the HoloLens people can virtually visit the exhibit and see so much more."
Another researcher, Jannelie de Vries, is also involved in bringing the project to - augmented - reality.
Hoglund believes the future development of AR will allow users a hyper-realistic experience of exhibits.
He said: "In the future this will allow us to enhance the screen. We're always talking about the smartphone that the screen is too small but I don't want a bigger screen because then the phone is too large and I have to use two hands. But now you don't have a handheld device at all, but the screen can be as big as you want. You can have it 360 degrees around you and not need any hands to interact with it."
The HoloLens has been available in the US and Canada since March and will ship in parts of Europe and Asia in November, costing $3,000 USD. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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