Аpproaches to creation of digital twins for use in AR/VR galleries

Abstract

The article analyzes different ways and technologies that can be used to create a so-called “digital twin” (digital copy) of a physical real-life art object and assesses their suitability for AR/VR applications, based on existing examples of digitized items that are considered to be part of cultural heritage, either local or global. One of primary issues for any digitisation process is that of faithful recreation of the original, which can be achieved in multiple ways ranging by price, complexity and quality of the result. Some approaches discussed in this article, can be utilized almost universally, with little regard to the type of the object to be scanned, while others have limitations arising from equipment’s capabilities, properties of the material the art piece is made of or even considerations about possible damage to the scanning equipment. In some cases we would need to combine several different techniques to receive the result that satisfies our project’s requirements and/or goals. However, before choosing our work process, we also have to take into consideration the application or in other words - the desired use case of our digital copies. As such, the primary concern for the purpose of this article is on the analysis of the available tools and techniques, from the standpoint of balanced cost/quality ratio in relation to fairly constrained use cases of virtual gallery spaces, both offline and online. VR/AR technologies place yet another restriction on our review, because it is highly not advised to use highest quality assets when creating experiences intended to be experienced with the aid of VR or AR and especially standalone headsets (meaning they do not need external processing equipment). This review also is limited to technologies known to be capable of producing results with consistent and repeatable quality levels as getting good results early on in the project’s life cycle allows us more room for any edits.