Interaction with Immersive Cultural Heritage Environments Using Virtual Reality Technologies

The essential characteristic of Virtual Reality (VR) technologies is the enhancement of the user experience regarding perception and presence by immersing the users in a virtual world. The principles which are necessary in a VR experience are the system to be believable, that means feeling as if you are actually there, to be interactive, so when a user extends the arm the VR world must replicate those movements, to be explorable, so that each user is able to walk around an environment and finally to be immersive, which can be achieved by mixing exploration and believability in a way that the experience is enjoyable from any angle. This paper discusses ongoing work regarding immersive environments in which users can interact with cultural heritage 3d objects, navigate in a virtual reality environment and be informed using gestural interaction. The work can be adapted for diverse domains and has been created as a case study of a generic-purpose development framework for creating immersive and interactive virtual reality environments.